
Class ____EjL0_2. 




From the Series ofA 
Canterbury Classics? 



Cbe Canterbury Classics 



A Series of Supplementary Readers 
edited under the general supervision of 

KATHARINE LEE BATES 

Professor of English Literature in 
Wellesley College^ Wellesley, Mass. 



The text of this edition of Franklin's 
autobiography follows closely the text of 
Franklin's original work. It seems best, 
even at the loss of colonial flavor, to accus- 
tom the eye of young people to the forms in 
general use. For this reason such spell- 
ings as "chuse" and "compleat" have been 
changed to modem form. In the interest 
of young readers a few passages have been 
omitted. 



Benjamin Franklin 

From the original portrait by Joseph S iff rein Duplessis, in the 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 



Cbe Hutobtograpby 
Benjamin franklin 



Edited by 

George B. Aiton 

State Inspector of High Schools 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 



Illustrated by 
Homer W. Colby 




Rand Penally <& Company 

Chicago New York London 



E3d% 

r 7A% ■ 



Copyright, igi2, by 
Rand McNally & Co. 



BLECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

| g5jjj Qattts gi&cgttUliy $»reg» 

;C^ICAGO, ILLINOIS, U. S. A. 



©CI. A 3284 06 




HE series of Canterbury Classics aims to bear its share in 



acquainting school children with literature suited to 



their years. The culture of the imagination is no less 
important than the culture of memory and the reasoning 
power. That childhood is poor which has not for friends 
many of the goodly company represented by Hector, Achilles, 
Roland, Sigurd, The Cid, Don Quixote, Lancelot, Robin Hood, 
Percy, the Douglas, Gulliver, Puck, Rip Van Winkle, and 
Alice in Wonderland. College classrooms, where Dante and 
Spenser, Goethe and Coleridge are taught, speedily feel the 
difference between minds nourished, from babyhood up, on 
myths of Olympus and myths of Asgard, Hans Christian 
Andersen, old ballads, the "Pilgrim's Progress," the "Arabian 
Nights, " the "Alhambra," and minds which are still 
strangers to fairyland and hero-land and all the dreamlands 
of the world's inheritance. Minds of this latter description 
come almost as barbarians to the study of poetry, deaf to 
its music and blind to its visions. They are in a foreign 
clime. In the larger college of life, no less, is felt the lack 
of an early initiation into literature. A practical people 
in a practical age, we need the grace of fable to balance our 
fact, the joy of poetry to leaven our prose. Something of 
the sort we are bound to have, and if familiarity in childhood 
with the classic tone has not armed us against the cheap, 
the flimsy, the corrupt in fiction, we fall easy victims to the 
trash of the hour. We become the sport of those mocking 
elves who give dry leaves for gold. 

This series must needs conform somewhat, in its choice of 
books, to the present demands of the schools. It will furnish 




[51 



6 



Introduction to the Series 



all good reading that is desired, but it aims also to help in 
arousing a desire for the more imaginative and inspiring 
legends of the Aryan race. In the case of every volume 
issued the text of the authoritative edition will be faithfully 
reproduced. 

These texts will be furnished with a modest amount of 
apparatus hidden away at the end of the book. It is the 
classic that is of importance. Often it may be best to 
disregard the notes. The series is addressed to children and 
aims to stimulate imagination, broaden sympathy, and 
awaken a love for literature. The editors strive to keep 
these aims in view and to avoid breaking the charm of the 
story by irrelevant and burdensome information. What is 
told is meant to be what a child would naturally like to 
know about the book that pleases him and the writer of the 
book. The biographical sketches emphasize, whenever it is 
appropriate, the childhood of the authors treated, and try 
throughout to give, by concrete illustration, impressions of 
personality and character. Special subjects sometimes call 
for special sketches, but, in general, the editorial work aims 
at quality rather than quantity. Knowledge which seems 
essential to intelligent reading, and which dictionary and 
teacher cannot reasonably be counted on to supply, has its 
place in notes, yet it is not forgotten that the notes exist 
for the sake of the literature, not the literature for the sake 
of the notes. Parents and librarians will appreciate the 
reading lists of books attractive to children, either by the 
author of the classic in hand or along the same lines of inter- 
est. Certain teachers, crowded and wearied with a variety 
of tasks, will welcome the section of suggestions. 

We have ventured to associate this series with the memory 
of the sweetest and most childlike spirit in English song, 
hoping that little pilgrims of to-day, journeying by April 
ways, may find as much cheer in gentle stories as did the 
poet of the Canterbury Tales. 

Katharine Lee Bates 

Welle sley College, 




^T7I CNiVlff/V,! 

THE TABLE -OF 
CONTENTS 




PAGE 

Introduction to the Series 5 

A List of Illustrations 9 

Autobiography 13 

Conclusion of Franklin's Life 298 

A Chronological Table 301 

Sayings of Poor Richard 303 

Notes 305 

Bibliographical Sketch . 310 

A Reading List 312 

Suggestions to Teachers 313 



7 



m 




Benjamin Franklin Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Franklin in his garden 12 

The church at Ecton 16 

Franklin's birthplace, Milk Street, Boston 21 

Greenough's statue of Franklin in front of the City Hall, 

Boston .... - 23 

Chair invented by Franklin 28 

Franklin as an apprentice 31 

Franklin's burning glass 38 

Franklin's first meeting with Deborah Read 51 

Franklin falls asleep in the Quaker meeting-house .... 53 
Governor Keith and Colonel French visit Franklin at Kei- 

mer's printing-house 55 

Sir William Keith 58 

Franklin's thermometer 72 

Franklin going aboard the "London Hope" 78 

Deborah Read Franklin facing 80 

Entrance to Little Britain, where Franklin lived while in 

London 83 

The press Franklin used in Watts 1 s printing-house in London 88 

Franklin' s music stand 100 ( 

Franklin's clock 108 

Continental money designed by Franklin 122 

Back of Continental currency 123 

Franklin's old book shop near Christ Church, Philadelphia . 124 
"J sometimes brought home the paper . . . on a wheel- 
barrow" 125 

Franklin's house at Passy, where part of the "Autobiography" 

was written 132 

[9] 



io A List of Illustrations 

PAGE 

Library and Surgeon's Hall in Fifth Street, Philadelphia . 134 

Franklin's pew in Christ Churchy Philadelphia . . . . 139 

The tablet on Franklin's pew in Christ Church . . facing 144 

The old Quaker meeting-house in Philadelphia . . . . 156 

Title page of first issue of "Poor Richard" 163 

Franklin's chess board, chessmen, and chessmen holder . 169 
Franklin and his daughter Sallie on a journey to inspect the 

post offices 175 

Carrying fire from the neighbor s 178 

Franklin's punch bowl .182 

Second Street, Philadelphia 186 

A typical Quaker • 195 

Franklin's stove * 201 

Franklin's original electrical machine 207 

A puzzle devised by Franklin facing 208 

The Pennsylvania Hospital 210 

The armonica, an instrument designed by Franklin - 217 

Harvard College in early days 224 

A union device used by Franklin 226 

Franklin's wineglass 230 

A British Regular 235 

Franklin's seal 243 

Milestone, Lyme, Connecticut ......... 250 

Bethlehem in 1760 253 

Building the fort at Gnadenkut 256 

Franklin escorted by his regiment 263 

An instrument designed by Franklin to draw electricity from 

the clouds 270 

Franklin's experiment with lightning 271 

Cartoon from an election medley facing 272 

The Copley medal presented to Franklin by the Royal Society 

of London 273 

Independence Hall in the days of Franklin 276 

Soup dishes for use on shipboard, designed by Franklin . . 288 

The famous Houdon bust of Franklin 295 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

OF 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Twyford, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 177 1. 

DEAR SON: I have ever had pleasure in 
obtaining any little anecdotes of my ances- 
tors. You may remember the inquiries I 
made among the remains of my relations when 
you were with me in England, and the journeys 
I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may 
be equally agreeable to you to know the circum- 
stances of my life, many of which you are yet 
unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoy- 
ment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my 10 
present country retirement, 1 sit down to write 
them for you. To which I have besides some 
other inducements. Having emerged from the 
poverty and obscurity in which I was born and 
bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of ^ 
reputation in the world, and having gone so far 
through life with a considerable share of felicity, 
the conducing means I made use of, which with 
the blessing of God so well succeeded, my pos- 
terity may like to know, as they may find some 20 
of them suitable to their own situations, and 
therefore fit to be imitated. 



[133 



Benjamin Franklin 



That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced 
me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my 

25 choice, I should have no objection to a repetition 
of the same life from its beginning, only asking 
the advantages authors have in a second edition 
to correct some faults of the first. So I might, 
besides correcting the faults, change some sinister 

30 accidents and events of it for others more favor- 
able. But though this were denied, I should still 
accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not 
to be expected, the next thing most like living 
one's life over again seems to be a recollection 

35 of that life, and to make that recollection as 
durable as possible by putting it down in writing. 

Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination 
so natural in old men, to be talking of them- 
selves and their own past actions; and I shall 
indulge it without being tiresome to others, 
who, through respect to age, might conceive ' 
themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since 
this may be read or not as any one pleases. 
And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my 

« denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps 
I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. In- 
deed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introduc- 
tory words, "Without vanity, I may say, " etc., but 
some vain thing immediately followed. Most 

so people dislike vanity in others, whatever share 
they have of it themselves; but I give it fair 



Benjamin Franklin 



15 



quarter wherever I meet with it, being per- 
suaded that it is often productive of good to 
the possessor, and to others that are within his 
sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, 55 
it would not be altogether absurd if a man were 
to thank God for his vanity among the other com- 
forts of life. 

And now I speak of thanking God, I desire 
with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the eo 
mentioned happiness of my past life to His 
kind providence, which led me to the means I 
used and gave them success. My belief of this 
induces me to hope, though I must not presume, 
that the same goodness will still be exercised ^ 
toward me, in continuing that happiness, or 
enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I 
may experience as others have done; the com- 
plexion of my future fortune being known to 
Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even 70 
our afflictions. 

The notes one of my uncles (who had the same 
kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) 
once put into my hands, furnished me with 
several particulars relating to our ancestors, re 
From these notes I learned that the family had 
lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamp- 
tonshire, for three hundred years, and how 
much longer he knew not (perhaps from the 
time when the name of Franklin, that before ^ 



i6 



Benjamin Franklin 



was the name of an order of people, was assumed 
by them as a surname when others took sur- 




The church at Ecton 

names all over the kingdom), on a freehold of 
about thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, 

85 which had continued in the family till his time, the 
eldest son being always bred to that business ; a 
custom which he and my father followed as to 
their eldest sons. When I searched the registers 
at Ecton, I found an account of their births, mar- 

soriages and burials from the year 1555 only, 
there being no registers kept in that parish at any 
time preceding. By that register I perceived 



Benjamin Franklin 



17 



that I was the youngest son of the youngest 
son for five generations back. My grandfather 
Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton^ 
till he grew too old to follow business longer, 
when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at 
Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father 
served an apprenticeship. There my grandfather 
died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 100 
1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house 
at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only 
child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one 
Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, 
now lord of the manor there. My grandfather 105 
had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, 
John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you 
what account I can of them, at this distance 
from my papers, and if these are not lost in my 
absence, you will among them find many more^o 
particulars. 

Thomas was bred a smith under his father; 
but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learn- 
ing (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire 
Palmer, then the principal gentleman in that "5 
parish, he qualified himself for the business of 
scrivener; became a considerable man in the 
county; was a chief mover of all public-spirited 
undertakings for the county or town of North- 
ampton, and his own village, of which many 120 
instances were related of him; and much taken 
2 



i8 



Benjamin Franklin 



notice of and patronized by the then Lord 
Halifax. He died in 1702, January 6, old style, 
just four years to a day before I was born. The 
125 account we received of his life and character 
from some old people at Ecton, I remember, 
struck you as something extraordinary, from its 
similarity to what you knew of mine. "Had 
he died on the same day, " you said, "one 
130 might have supposed a transmigration." 

John was bred a dyer, I believe, of woollens. 
Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an 
apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious 
man. I remember him well, for when I was a 
135 boy he came over to my father in Boston, and 
lived in the house with us some years. He lived 
to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, 
now lives in Boston. He left behind him two 
quarto volumes, MS., of his own poetry, con- 
no sisting of little occasional pieces addressed to his 
friends and relations, of which the following, 
sent to me, is a specimen. He had formed a 
short-hand of his own, which he taught me; but, 
never practicing it, I have now forgot it. I was 
145 named after this uncle, there being a particular 
affection between him and my father. He was 
very pious, a great attender of sermons of the 
best preachers, which he took down in his short- 
hand, and had with him many volumes of them 
150 He was also much of a politician; too much, 



Benjamin Franklin 



19 



perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into 
my hands, in London, a collection he had made 
of all the principal pamphlets relating to public 
affairs, from 1641 to 171 7; many of the volumes 
are wanting as appears by the numbering, but 155 
there still remain eight volumes in folio, and 
twenty -four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer 
in old books met with them, and knowing me by 
my sometimes buying of him, he brought them 
to me. It seems my uncle must have left themieo 
here when he went to America, which was above 
fifty years since. There are many of his notes 
in the margins. 

This obscure family of ours was early in the 
Reformation, and continued Protestants through 
the reign of Queen Mary, when they were some- 
times in danger of trouble on account of their 
zeal against popery. They had got an English 
Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened 
open with tapes under and within the cover of 170 
a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather 
read it to his family, he turned up the joint- 
stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves 
then under the tapes. One of the children 
stood at the door to give notice if he saw the 175 
apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spir- 
itual court. In that case the stool was turned 
down again upon its feet, when the Bible re- 
mained concealed under it as before. This 



20 Benjamin Franklin 

i8o anecdote I had from my uncle Benjamin. The 
family continued all of the Church of Eng- 
land till about the end of Charles the Second's 
reign, when some of the ministers that had been 
outed for non-conformity holding conventicles 

185 in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah ad- 
hered to them, and so continued all their lives : the 
rest of the family remained with the Episcopal 
Church. 

Josiah, my father, married young, and carried 

wo his wife with three children into New England, 
about 1682. The conventicles having been for- 
bidden by law, and frequently disturbed, induced 
some considerable men of his acquaintance to 
remove to that country, and he was prevailed 

195 with to accompany them thither, where they 
expected to enjoy their mode of religion with 
freedom. By the same wife he had four children 
more born there, and by a second wife ten more, 
in all seventeen; of which I remember thirteen 

200 sitting at one time at his table, who all grew up 
to be men and women, and married; I was the 
youngest son, and the youngest child but two, 
and was born in Boston, New England. My 
mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, 

205 daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first settlers 
of New England, of whom honorable mention is 
made by Cotton Mather, in his church history 
of that country, entitled "Magnalia Christi 



Benjamin Franklin 



21 



Americana, " as "a godly, learned Englishman," 
if I remember the words rightly. I have heard 210 
that he wrote sundry small occasional pieces, but 
only one of them was printed, which I saw now 
many years since. It was written in 1675, in 
the home-spun verse of that time and people, 
and addressed to those then concerned in the 215 




Franklin's birthplace, Milk Street, Boston 

government there. It was in favor of liberty 
of conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists, 
Quakers, and other sectaries that had been under 
persecution, ascribing the Indian wars, and other 
distresses that had befallen the country, to that 220 
persecution, as so many judgments of God to 
punish so heinous an offense, and exhorting a 
repeal of those uncharitable laws. The whole 



22 



Benjamin Franklin 



appeared to me as written with a good deal of 
225 decent plainness and manly freedom. The six 
concluding lines I remember, though I have 
forgotten the two first of the stanza; but the 
purport of them was, that his censures proceeded 
from good-will, and, therefore, he would be 
230 known to be the author. 

* 'Because to be a libeller (says he) 
I hate it with my heart; 
From Sherburne town, where now I dwell, 
My name I do put here; 
235 Without offense your real friend, 

It is Peter Folgier." 

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to 
different trades. I was put to the grammar- 
school at eight years of age, my father intending 

240 to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the 
service of the Church. My early readiness in 
learning to read (which must have been very 
early, as I do not remember when I could not 
read), and the opinion of all his friends, that I 

245 should certainly make a good scholar, encour- 
aged him in this purpose of his. My uncle 
Benjamin, too, approved of it, and proposed to 
give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, 
I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would 

250 learn his character. I continued, however, at 
the grammar-school not quite one year, though 
in that time I had risen gradually from the 



Benjamin Franklin 



23 



middle of the class of that year to be the head of 
it, and farther was removed into the next class 
above it, in order to go with that into the third 2*5 
at the end of the year. But my father, in the 
mean time, from a view of the expense of a col- 
lege education, which having so large a family 
he could not well afford, and the mean living 
many so educated were 
afterwards able to ob- 
tain — reasons that he 
gave to his friends in 
my hearing — altered his 
first intention, took me 
from the grammar- 
school, and sent me to 
a school for writing and 
arithmetic, kept by a 
then famous man, Mr. 
George Brownell, very 
successful in his profes- 
sion generally, and that 
by mild, encouraging 
methods. Under him I 
acquired fair writing 
pretty soon, but I failed 
in the arithmetic, and 
made no progress in it. 
At ten years old I was taken home to assist my 2so 
father in his business, which was that of a tallow- 




Greenough's statue of Franklin in 
front of the City Hall, Boston. 
The statue stands very near the 
site of the Latin Grammar 
School, which Franklin attended 



24 



Benjamin Franklin 



chandler and soap-boiler, a business he was not 
bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New 
"England, and on finding his dyeing trade would 

285 not maintain his family, being in little request. 
Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick 
for the candles, filling the dipping mold and the 
molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going 
of errands, etc. 

» I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclina- 
tion for the sea, but my father declared against 
it; however, living near the water, I was much 
in and about it, learned early to swim well, and to 
manage boats ; and when in a boat or canoe with 

mother boys I was commonly allowed to govern, 
especially in any case of difficulty; and upon 
other occasions I was generally a leader among 
the boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, 
of which I will mention one instance, as it shows 

sooan early projecting public spirit, though not then 
justly conducted. 

There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of 
the mill-pond, on the edge of which, at high water, 
we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much 

305 trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. 
My proposal was to build a wharf there fit for 
us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades 
a large heap of stones, which were intended for 
a new house near the marsh, and which would 

3io very well suit our purpose. Accordingly, in 



Benjamin Franklin 



25 



the evening, when the workmen were gone, I 
assembled a number of my play-fellows, and 
working with them diligently like so many 
emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we 
brought them all away and built our little 315 
wharf. The next morning the workmen were sur- 
prised at missing the stones, which were found 
in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the re- 
movers; we were discovered and complained 
of; several of us were corrected by our fathers; 320 
and, though I pleaded the usefulness of the 
work, mine convinced me that nothing was 
useful which was not honest. 

I think you may like to know something 01 
his person and character. He had an excellent 325 
constitution of body, was of middle stature, but 
well set, and very strong; he was ingenious, 
could draw prettily, was skilled a little in music, 
and had a clear, pleasing voice, so that when 
he played psalm tunes on his violin and sang 330 
withal, as he sometimes did in an evening after 
the business of the day was over, it was extremely 
agreeable to hear. He had a mechanical genius, 
too, and, on occasion, was very handy in the 
use of other tradesmen's tools; but his great 335 
excellence lay in a sound understanding and solid 
judgment in prudential matters, both in private 
and public affairs. In the latter, indeed, he was 
never employed, the numerous family he had to 



26 Benjamin Franklin 

340 educate and the straitness of his circumstances 
keeping him close to his trade; but I remember 
well his being frequently visited by leading 
people, who consulted him for his opinion in 
affairs of the town or of the church he belonged 

345 to, and showed a good deal of respect for his 
judgment and advice: he was also much con- 
sulted by private persons about their affairs 
when any difficulty occurred, and frequently 
chosen an arbitrator between contending parties. 

350 At his table he liked to have, as often as he 
could, some sensible friend or neighbor to con- 
verse with, and always took care to start some 
ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which 
might tend to improve the minds of his children. 

355 By this means he turned our attention to what 
was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of 
life; and little or no notice was ever taken of 
what related to the victuals on the table, 
whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of 

360 season, of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior 
to this or that other thing of the kind, so that 
I was brought up in such a perfect inattention 
to those matters as to be quite indifferent what 
kind of food was set before me, and so unob- 

365 servant of it, that to this day if I am asked I can 
scarce tell a few hours after dinner what I dined 
upon. This has been a convenience to me in 
travelling, where my companions have been 



Benjamin Franklin 



27 



sometimes very unhappy for want of a suitable 
gratification of their more delicate, because better 370 
instructed, tastes and appetites. 

My mother had likewise an excellent consti- 
tution : she suckled all her ten children. I never 
knew either my father or mother to have any 
sickness but that of which they died, he at 89, 375 
and she at 85 years of age. They lie buried 
together at Boston, where I some years since 
placed a marble over their grave, with this 
inscription : 

Josiah Franklin, 380 
and 

Abiah his wife, 
lie here interred. 
They lived lovingly together in wedlock 

fifty-five years. 385 
Without an estate, or any gainful employment, 
By constant labor and industry, 

with God's blessing, 
They maintained a large family 

comfortably, 3,0 
and brought up thirteen children 
and seven grandchildren 
reputably. 
From this instance, reader, 
Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, 395 
And distrust not Providence. 
He was a pious and prudent man; 
She, a discreet and virtuous woman. 
Their youngest son, 
In filial regard to their memory, 400 
Places this stone. 
J. F. born 1655, died 1744, iEtat 89. 
A. F. born 1667, died 1752, 85. 



28 



Benjamin Franklin 



By my rambling digressions I perceive myself 
*05 to be grown old. I used to write more methodi- 
cally. But one does not dress for private com- 
pany as for a public ball. 'T is perhaps only 
negligence. 

To return: I continued thus employed in my 
410 father's business for two years,- that is, till I 
was twelve years old; and my brother John, 

who was bred to that 
business, having left my 
father, married, and set 
up for himself at Rhode 
Island, there was all 
appearance that I was 
destined to supply his 
place, and become a 
tallow-chandler. But my 
dislike to the trade con- 
tinuing, my father was 
under apprehensions that 

Chair invented by Franklin. . 

The under side of the seat if he did not find one 
was used as a stepladder for me mQre agreeable> I 

should break away and get to sea, -as his son 
Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He 
therefore sometimes took me to walk with him, 
and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, 
430 etc., at their work, that he might observe my 
inclination, and endeavor to fix it on some 
trade or other on land. It has ever since been 




From a photo of the original ehair 



Benjamin Franklin 



29 



a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle 
their tools; and it has been useful to me, having 
learned so much by it as to be able to do little 435 
jobs myself in my house when a workman could 
not readily be got, and to construct little machines 
for my experiments, while the intention of 
making the experiment was fresh and warm 
in my mind. My father at last fixed upon the ^ 
cutler's trade, and my uncle Benjamin's son 
Samuel, who was bred to that business in London, 
being about that time established in Boston, I 
was sent to be with him some time on liking. 
But his expectations of a fee with me dis-445 
pleasing my father, I was taken home again. 

From a child I was fond of reading, and all 
the little money that came into my hands 
was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the 
Pilgrim's Progress, my first collection was of*so 
John Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. 
I afterward sold them to enable me to buy 
R. Burton's Historical Collections; they were 
small chapmen's books, and cheap, 40 or 50 in 
all. My father's little library consisted chiefly 455 
of books in polemic divinity, most of which I 
read, and have since often regretted that, at a 
time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, 
more proper books had not fallen in my way, 
since it was now resolved I should not be a^o 
clergyman. Plutarch's Lives there was in which 



30 



Benjamin Franklin 



I read abundantly, and I still think that time 
spent to great advantage. There was also a 
book of De Foe's, called an Essay on Projects, 

465 and another of Dr. Mather's, called Essays 
to do Good, which perhaps gave me a turn of 
thinking that had an influence on some of the 
principal future events of my life. 

This bookish inclination at length deter- 

470 mined my father to make me a printer, though 
he had already one son (James) of that profes- 
sion. In 1 7 1 7 my brother James returned from 
England with a press and letters to set up his 
business in Boston. I liked it much better than 

475 that of my father, but still had a hankering 
for the sea. To prevent the apprehended 
effect of such an inclination, rm r father was 
impatient to have me bound to my brother. I 
stood out some time, but at last was persuaded, 

480 and signed the indentures when I was yet but 
twelve years old. I was to serve as an appren- 
tice till I was twenty-one years of age, only I 
was to be allowed journeyman's wages during 
the last year. In a little time I made great 

485 proficiency in the business, and became a useful 
hand to my brother. I now had access to 
better books. An acquaintance with the appren- 
tices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to 
borrow a small one, which I was careful to 

490 return soon and clean. Often I sat up in my 



Benjamin Franklin 



31 



room reading the greatest part of the night, 
when the book was borrowed in the evening 
and to be returned early in the morning, lest it 
should be missed or wanted. 

And after some time an ingenious tradesman, ®$ 




After a bronze tablet oa the pedestal of Greenough'a statue of Franklin 



Franklin as an apprentice 

Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection 
of books, and who frequented our printing- 
house, took notice of me, invited me to his 
library, and very kindly lent me such books 
as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to 500 
poetry, and made some little pieces; my brother, 



32 



Benjamin Franklin 



thinking it might turn to account, encouraged 
me, and put me on composing occasional ballads. 
One was called The Lighthouse Tragedy, and con- 

sostained an account of the drowning of Captain 
Worthilake, with his two daughters: the other 
was a sailor's song, on the taking of Teach (or 
Blackbeard) the pirate. They were wretched 
stuff, in the Grub-street-ballad style; and when 

510 they were printed he sent me about the town to 
sell them. The first sold wonderfully, the event 
being recent, having made a great noise. This 
flattered my vanity; but my father discouraged 
me by ridiculing my performances, and telling 

6i5 me verse-makers were generally beggars. So I 
escaped being a poet, most probably a very bad 
one; but as prose writing has been of great use 
to me in the course of my life, and was a prin- 
cipal means of my advancement, I shall tell 

520 you how, in such a situation, I acquired what 
little ability I have in that way. 

There was another bookish lad in the town, 
John Collins by name, with whom I was inti- 
mately acquainted. We sometimes disputed, 

525 and very fond we were of argument, and very 
desirous of confuting one another, which dis- 
putatious turn, by the way, is apt to become a 
very bad habit, making people often extremely 
disagreeable in company by the contradic- 

eaotion that is necessary to bring it into practice; 



Benjamin Franklin 33 

and thence, besides souring and spoiling the 
conversation, is productive of disgusts and, 
perhaps, enmities where you may have occa- 
sion for friendship. I had caught it by reading 
my father's books of dispute about religion. 535 
Persons of good sense, I have since observed, 
seldom fall into it, except lawyers, university 
men, and men of all sorts that have been bred 
at Edinburgh. 

A question was once, somehow or other, 540 
started between Collins and me, of the propriety 
of educating the female sex in learning, and 
their abilities for study. He was of opinion 
that it was improper, and that they were 
naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary 545 
side, perhaps a little for dispute's sake. He 
was naturally more eloquent, had a ready plenty 
of words; and sometimes, as I thought, bore me 
down more by his fluency than by the strength 
of his reasons. As we parted without settling 550 
the point, and were not to see one another again 
for some time, I sat down to put my arguments 
in writing, which I copied fair and sent to him. 
He answered, and I replied. Three or four 
letters of a side had passed, when my father 555 
happened to find my papers and read them. 
Without entering into the discussion, he took 
occasion to talk to me about the manner of 
my writing; observed that, though I had the 



34 



Benjamin Franklin 



sec advantage of my antagonist in correct spelling 
and pointing (which I owed to the printing- 
house), I fell far short in elegance of expression, 
in method and in perspicuity, of which he 
convinced me by several instances. I saw the 

565 justice of his remarks, and thence grew more 
attentive to the manner in writing, and deter- 
mined to endeavor at improvement. 

About this time I met with an odd volume 
of the Spectator. It was the third. I had 

570 never before seen any of them. I bought it, 
read it over and over, and was much delighted 
with it. I thought the writing excellent, and 
wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this 
view I took some of the papers, and, making short 

575 hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them 
by a few days, and then, without looking at 
the book, tried to complete the papers again, 
by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, 
and as fully as it had been expressed before, in 

580 any suitable words that should come to hand. 
Then I compared my Spectator with the original, 
discovered some of my faults, and corrected 
them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, 
or a readiness in recollecting and using them, 

585 which I thought I should have acquired before 
that time if I had gone on making verses; since 
the continual occasion for words of the same 
import, but of different length, to suit the measure, 



Benjamin Franklin 



35 



or of different sound for the rhyme, would have 
laid me under a constant necessity of search- 590 
ing for variety, and also have tended to fix that 
variety in my mind, and make me master of it. 
Therefore I took some of the tales and turned 
them into verse; and, after a time, when I 
had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them 595 
back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collec- 
tions of hints into confusion, and after some 
weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best 
order, before I began to form the full sentences 
and complete the paper. This was to teach me eoo 
method in the arrangement of thoughts. By 
comparing my work afterwards with the origi- 
nal, I discovered many faults and amended 
them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of 
fancying that, in certain particulars of small eos 
import, I had been lucky enough to improve 
the method or the language, and this encour- 
aged me to think I might possibly in time come 
to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was 
extremely ambitious. My time for these exer- eio 
cises and for reading was at night, after work or 
before it began in the morning, or on Sundays, 
when I contrived to be in the printing-house alone, 
avoiding as much as I could the common attend- 
ance on public worship which my father used to *is 
exact of me when I was under his care, and which 
indeed I still thought a duty, though I could not, 



36 



Benjamin Franklin 



as it seemed to me, afford time to practice it. 
When about 16 years of age I happened to 

620 meet with a book, written by one Tryon, recom- 
mending a vegetable diet. I determined to go 
into it. My brother, being yet unmarried, did 
not keep house, but boarded himself and his 
apprentices in another family. My refusing to 

625 eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I 
was frequently chid for my singularity. I made 
myself acquainted with Tryon's manner of pre- 
paring some of his dishes, such as boiling pota- 
toes or rice, making hasty pudding, and a few 

68o others, and then proposed to my brother, that if 
he would give me, weekly, half the money he 
paid for my board, I would board myself. He 
instantly agreed to it, and I presently found 
that I could save half what he paid me. This 

635 was an additional fund for buying books. But I 
had another advantage in it. My brother and 
the rest going from the printing-house to their 
meals, I remained there alone, and, dispatching 
presently my light repast, which often was no 

640 more than a biscuit or a slice of bread, a handful 
of raisins or a tart from the pastry-cook's, and 
a glass of water, had the rest of the time till 
their return for study, in which I made the 
greater progress, from that greater clearness of 

645 head and quicker apprehension which usually 
attend temperance in eating and drinking. 



Benjamin Franklin 



37 



And now it was that, being on some occasion 
made ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which 
I had twice failed in learning when at school, 
I took Cocker's book of Arithmetic, and went eso 
through the whole by myself with great ease. I 
also read Seller's and Shermy's books of Navi- 
gation, and became acquainted with the little 
geometry they contain; but never proceeded far 
in that science. And I read about this time ess 
Locke On Human Understanding, and the Art 
of Thinking, by Messrs. du Port Royal. 

While I was intent on improving my lan- 
guage, I met with an English grammar (I think 
it was Greenwood's), at the end of which there eeo 
were two little sketches of the arts of rhetoric 
and logic, the latter finishing with a specimen 
of a dispute in the Socratic method; and soon 
after I procured Xenophon's Memorable Things 
of Socrates, wherein there are many instances 665 
of the same method. I was charmed with it, 
adopted it, dropped my abrupt contradiction 
and positive argumentation, and put on the hum- 
ble inquirer and doubter. And being then, 
from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become 67o 
a real doubter in many points of our religious 
doctrine, I found this method safest for myself 
and very embarrassing to those against whom I 
used it; therefore I took a delight in it, prac- 
ticed it continually, and grew very artful and 675 



38 



Benjamin Franklin 



expert in drawing people, even of superior 
knowledge, into concessions, the consequences 
of which they did not foresee, entangling them 
in difficulties out of which they could not extri- 
ssocate themselves, and so obtaining victories that 
neither myself nor my cause always deserved. 
I continued this method some few years, but 

gradually left it, retaining 
only the habit of expressing 
myself in terms of modest 
diffidence ; never using, when 
I advanced any thing that 
may possibly be disputed, 
the words certainly , un- 
doubtedly, or any others that 
give the air of positiveness 
to an opinion; but rather 
sa}^, I conceive or appre- 
hend a thing to be so and 
so; it appears to me, or I 

Franklin's burning glass should think it SO or SO, 
for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to 
be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This 
habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to 
700 me when I have had occasion to inculcate my 
opinions, and persuade men into measures that 
I have been from time to time engaged in pro- 
moting; and, as the chief ends of conversation 
are to inform or to be informed, to please or to 




Benjamin Franklin 



39 



persuade \ I wish well-meaning, sensible men 705 
would not lessen their power of doing good by 
a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails 
to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to 
defeat every one of those purposes for which 
speech was given to us, to wit, giving or no 
receiving information or pleasure. For, if you 
would inform, a positive and dogmatical manner 
in advancing your sentiments may provoke con- 
tradiction and prevent a candid attention. If 
you wish information and improvement from 715 
the knowledge of others, and yet at the same 
time express yourself as firmly fixed in your 
present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do 
not love disputation, will probably leave you 
undisturbed in the possession of your error. 720 
And by such a manner, you can seldom hope to 
recommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, 
or to persuade those w T hose concurrence you 
desire. Pope says, judiciously : 

"Men should be taught as if you taught them not, 725 
And things unknown proposed as things forgot 

farther recommending to us 

"To speak, tho' sure, with seeming diffidence." 

And he might have coupled with this line that 
which he has coupled with another, I think, 730 
less properly: 

"For want of modesty is want of sense." 



40 



Benjamin Franklin 



If you ask, Why less properly? I must repeat 

the lines : 

735 "Immodest words admit of no defense, 

For want of modesty is want of sense.' 1 

Now, is not want of sense (where a man is so 

unfortunate as to want it) some apology for his 

want of modesty? and would not the lines stand 

740 more justly thus? 

"Immodest words admit but this defense, 
That want of modesty is want of sense. M 

This, however, I should submit to better judg- 
ments. 

745 My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to 
print a newspaper. It was the second that ap- 
peared in America, and was called the New 
England Courant. The only one before it was 
the Boston News-Letter. I remember his being 

750 dissuaded by some of his friends from the under- 
taking, as not likely to succeed, one newspaper 
being, in their judgment, enough for America. 
At this time (17 71) there are not less than five- 
and-twenty. He went on, however, with the 

755 undertaking, and after having worked in com- 
posing the types and printing off the sheets, I 
was employed to carry the papers through the 
streets to the customers. 

He had some ingenious men among his friends, 

760 who amused themselves by writing little pieces 
for this paper, which gained it credit and made 



Benjamin Franklin 



4i 



it more in demand, and these gentlemen often 
visited us. Hearing their conversations, and 
their accounts of the approbation their papers 
were received with, I was excited to try my 765 
hand among them; but, being still a boy, and 
suspecting that my brother would object to 
printing any thing of mine in his paper if he 
knew it to be mine, I contrived to disguise my 
hand, and, writing an anonymous paper, I put 770 
it in at night under the door of the printing- 
house. It was found in the morning, and com- 
municated to his writing friends when they 
called in as usual. They read it, commented on 
it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite pleas- 775 
ure of finding it met with their approbation, and 
that, in their different guesses at the author, 
none were named but men of some character 
among us for learning and ingenuity. I sup- 
pose now that I was rather lucky in my judges, 78o 
and that perhaps they were not really so very 
good ones as I then esteemed them. 

Encouraged, however, by this, I wrote and 
conveyed in the same way to the press several 
more papers which were equally approved; and 735 
I kept my secret till my small fund of sense 
for such performances was pretty well exhausted, 
and then I discovered it, when I began to be 
considered a little more by my brother's acquaint- 
ance, and in a manner that did not quite please ™> 



42 



Benjamin Franklin 



him, as he thought, probably with reason, that 
it tended to make me too vain. And, perhaps, 
this might be one occasion of the differences 
that we began to have about this time. Though 

795 a brother, he considered himself as my master, 
and me as his apprentice, and, accordingly, 
expected the same services from me as he would 
from another, while I thought he demeaned me 
too much in some he required of me/ who from 

8oo a brother expected more indulgence. Our dis- 
putes were often brought before our father, and 
I fancy I was either generally in the right, or 
else a better pleader, because the judgment 
was generally in my favor. But my brother 

sos was passionate, and had often beaten me, which 
I took extremely amiss; and, thinking my 
apprenticeship very tedious, I was continually 
wishing for some opportunity of shortening it, 
which at length offered in a manner unexpected. 

sio One of the pieces in our newspaper on some 
political point, which I have now forgotten, 
gave offense to the Assembly. He was taken 
up, censured, and imprisoned for a month, by 
the Speaker's warrant, I suppose, because he 

sis would not discover his author. I too was 
taken up and examined before the council; 
but, though I did not give them any satisfaction, 
they contented themselves with admonishing me, 
and dismissed me, considering me, perhaps, as an 



Benjamin Franklin 



43 



apprentice, who was bound to keep his master's 820 
secrets. 

During my brother's confinement, which I 
resented a good deal, notwithstanding our pri- 
vate differences, I had the management of the 
paper; and I made bold to give our rulers some 825 
rubs in it, which my brother took very kindly, 
while others began to consider me in an unfa- 
vorable light, as a young genius that had a turn 
for . libelling and satire. My brother's dis- 
charge was accompanied with an order of the 830 
House (a very odd one), that "James Franklin 
should no longer print the paper called the New 
England C our ant. " 

There was a consultation held in our print- 
ing-house among his , friends, what he should 335 
do in this case. Some proposed to evade the 
order by changing the name of the paper; but 
my brother, seeing inconveniences in that, it 
was finally concluded on as a better way, to let 
it be printed for the future under the name of 840 
Benjamin Franklin; and to avoid the cen- 
sure of the Assembly, that might fall on him 
as still printing it by his apprentice, the con- 
trivance was that my old indenture should be 
returned to me, with a full discharge on the 845 
back of it, to be shown on occasion, but to 
secure to him the benefit of my service, I was 
to sign new indentures for the remainder of 



44 



Benjamin Franklin 



the term, which were to be kept private. A 

850 very flimsy scheme it was; however, it was imme- 
diately executed, and the paper went on accord- 
ingly, under my name for several months. 

At length, a fresh difference arising between 
my brother and me, I took upon me to assert 

855 my freedom, presuming that he would not ven- 
ture to produce the new indentures. It was 
not fair in me to take this advantage, and this 
I therefore reckon one of the first errata of 
my life; but the unfairness of it weighed little 

860 with me, when under the impressions of resent- 
ment for the blows his passion too often urged 
him to bestow upon me, though he was otherwise 
not an ill-natured man: perhaps I was too saucy 
and provoking. 

665 When he found I would leave him, he took 
care to prevent my getting employment in 
any other printing-house of the town, by going 
round and speaking to every master, who accord- 
ingly refused to give me work. I then thought 

870 of going to New York, as the nearest place where 
there was a printer; and I was rather inclined 
to leave Boston when I reflected that I had 
already made myself a little obnoxious to the 
governing party, and, from the arbitrary pro- 

875 ceedings of the Assembly in my brother's case, it 
was likely I might, if I stayed, soon bring myself 
into scrapes; and farther, that my indiscrete 



Benjamin Franklin 



45 



disputations about religion began to make me 
pointed at with horror by good people as an 
infidel or atheist. I determined on the point, but sso 
my father now siding with my brother, I was 
sensible that, if I attempted to go openly, means 
would be used to prevent me. My friend 
Collins, therefore, undertook to manage a little 
for me. He agreed with the captain of a New see 
York sloop for my passage, under the notion 
of my being a young acquaintance of his, that 
had got into trouble, and therefore could not 
appear or come away publicly. So I sold some 
of my books to raise a little money, was taken m 
on board privately, and as we had a fair wind, 
in three days I found myself in New York, near 
300 miles from home, a boy of but 17, without 
the least recommendation to, or knowledge of 
any person in the place, and with very little sm 
money in my pocket. 

My inclinations for the sea were by this time 
worn out, or I might now have gratified them. 
But, having a trade, and supposing myself a 
pretty good workman, I offered my service to the 000 
printer in the place, old Mr. William Bradford, 
who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, 
but removed from thence upon the quarrel of 
George Keith. He could give me no employment, 
having little to do, and help enough already; 905 
but says he, "My son at Philadelphia has lately 



4 6 



Benjamin Franklin 



lost his principal hand, Aquila Rose, by death; 
if you go thither, I believe he may employ you." 
Philadelphia was a hundred miles further; I 

910 set out, however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving 
my chest and things to follow me round by sea. 

In crossing the bay, we met with a squall that 
tore our rotten sails to pieces, prevented our 
getting into the Kill, and drove us upon Long 

9i5 Island. In our way, a drunken Dutchman, who 
was a passenger too, fell overboard; when he 
was sinking, I reached through the water to his 
shock pate, and drew him up, so that we got 
him in again. His ducking sobered hinTa little, 

920 and he went to sleep, taking first out of his 
pocket a book, which he desired I would dry for 
him. It proved to be my old favorite author, 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, in Dutch, finely 
printed on good paper, with copper cuts, a dress 

925 better than I had ever seen it wear in its own 
language. I have since found that it has been 
translated into most of the languages of Europe, 
and suppose it has been more generally read 
than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. 

s3o Honest John w r as the first that I know of who 
mixed narration and dialogue; a method of 
writing very engaging to the reader, who in 
the most interesting parts finds himself, as it 
were, brought into the company and present at 

935 the discourse. De Foe in. his Cmsoe, his Moll 



Benjamin Franklin 



47 



Flanders, Religious Courtship, Family Instructor, 
and other pieces, has imitated it with success ; and 
Richardson has done the same in his Pamela, etc. 

When we drew near the island, we found it 
was at a place where there could be no land- 040 
ing, there being a great surf on the stony beach. 
So we dropped anchor, and swung around towards 
the shore. Some people came down to the water 
edge and hallooed to us, as we did to them; but 
the wind was so high, and the surf so loud, that 945 
we could not hear so as to understand each other. 
There were canoes on the shore, and we made 
signs, and hallooed that they should fetch us ; 
but they either did not understand us, or thought 
it impracticable, so they went away, and night 950 
coming on, we had no remedy but to wait till the 
wind should abate; and, in the mean time, the 
boatman and I concluded to sleep, if we could; 
and so crowded into the scuttle, with the Dutch- 
man, who was still wet, and the spray beating 955 
over the head of our boat, leaked through to us, 
so that we were soon almost as wet as he. In 
this manner we lay all night, with very little 
rest; but, the wind abating the next day, we 
made a shift to reach Amboy before night, having seo 
been thirty hours on the water, without victuals, 
or any drink but a bottle of filthy rum, the 
water we sailed on being salt. 

In the evening I found myself very feverish, 



48 Benjamin Franklin 

965 and went in to bed; but, having read some- 
where that cold water drank plentifully was good 
for a fever, I followed the prescription, sweat 
plentifully most of the night, my fever left me, 
and in the morning, crossing the ferry, I proceeded 

970 on my journey on foot, having fifty miles to 
Burlington, where I was told I should find boats 
that would carry me the rest of the way to 
Philadelphia. 

It rained very hard all the day; I was thor- 

975 oughly soaked, and by noon a good deal tired; 
so I stopped at a poor inn, where I stayed all 
night, beginning now to wish that I had never 
left home. I cut so miserable a figure, too, that 
I found, by the questions asked me, I was 

980 suspected to be some runaway servant, and in 
danger of being taken up on that suspicion. 
However, I proceeded the next day, and got in 
the evening to an inn, within eight or ten miles of 
Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown. He entered 

985 into conversation with me while I took some 
refreshment, and, finding I had read a little, 
became very sociable and friendly. Our acquaint- 
ance continued as long as he lived. He had 
been, I imagine, an itinerant doctor, for there 

990 was no town in England, or country in Europe, 
of which he could not give a very particular 
account. He had some letters, and was inge- 
nious, but much of an unbeliever, and wickedly 



Benjamin Franklin 



49 



undertook, some years after, to travesty the 
Bible in doggerel verse, as Cotton had done ™ 
Virgil. By this means he set many of the facts 
in a very ridiculous light, and might have hurt 
weak minds if his work had been published; but 
it never was. 

At his house I lay that night, and the nextiooc 
morning reached Burlington, but had the morti- 
fication to find that the regular boats were gone 
a little before my coming, and no other expected 
to go before Tuesday, this being Saturday; 
wherefore I returned to an old woman in theioos 
town, of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat 
on the water, and asked her advice. She invited 
me to lodge at her house till a passage by water 
should offer; and being tired with my foot 
travelling, I accepted the invitation. She under- 1010 
standing I was a printer, would have had me 
stay at that town and follow my business, 
being ignorant of the stock necessary to begin 
with. She was very hospitable, gave me a 
dinner of ox-cheek with great good will, accept- 1015 
ing only of a pot of ale in return ; and I thought 
myself fixed till Tuesday should come. How- 
ever, walking in the evening by the side of the 
river, a boat came by, which I found was going 
towards Philadelphia, with several people in her. 1020 
They took me in, and, as there was no wind, 
we rowed all the way; and about midnight, not 
4 



50 



Benjamin Franklin 



having yet seen the city, some of the company 
were confident we must have passed it, and would 

1025 row no farther; the others knew not where we 
were; so we put toward the shore, got into a 
creek, landed near an old fence, with the rails 
of which we made a fire, the night being cold, 
in October, and there we remained till daylight. 

1030 Then one of the company knew the place to be 
Cooper's Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which 
we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and 
arrived there about eight or nine o'clock on the 
Sunday morning, and landed at the Market-street 

loss wharf. 

I have been the more particular in this descrip- 
tion of my journey, and shall be so of my first 
entry into that city, that you may in your 
mind compare such unlikely beginnings with 

1040 the figure I have since made there. I was in 
my work : ng dress, my best clothes being to come 
round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; 
my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and 
stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to 

1045 look for lodging. I was fatigued with travel- 
ling, rowing and want of rest ; I was very hungry ; 
and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch 
dollar, and about a shilling in copper. The latter 
I gave the people of the boat for my passage, 

logo who at first refused it, on account of my row- 
ing; but I insisted on their taking it. A man 



Benjamin Franklin 51 

being sometimes more generous when he has 
but a little money than when he has plenty, 




Franklin's first meeting with Deborah Read 



perhaps through fear of being thought to have 
but little. 1055 

Then I walked up the street, gazing about till 
near the market-house I met a boy with bread. 
I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquir- 
ing where he got it, I went immediately to the 



52 



Benjamin Franklin 



woo bakers he directed me to, in Second-street, 
and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had 
in Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in 
Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three-penny 
loaf, and was told they had none such. So not 

1M5 considering or knowing the difference of money, 
and the greater cheapness nor the names of 
his bread, I bade him give me three-penny 
worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, 
three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the 

1070 quantity, but took it, and, having no room 
in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each 
arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up 
Market-street as far as Fourth-street, passing 
by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's 

1075 father; when she, standing at the door, saw me, 
and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most 
awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned 
and went down Chestnut-street and part of 
Walnut-street, eating my roll all the way, and, 

loso coming round, found myself again at Market- 
street wharf, near the boat I came in, to which 
I went for a draught of the river water; and, 
being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other 
two to a woman and her child that came down 

loss the river in the boat with us, and were waiting 
to go farther. 

Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, 
which by this time had many clean-dressed 



Benjamin Franklin 



53 



people in it, who were all walking the same way. 
I joined them, and thereby was led into the 1090 
great meeting-house of the Quakers near the 
market. I sat down among them, and, after 
looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, 




Franklin falls asleep in the Quaker meeting-house 



being very drowsy through labor and want of 
rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and 1095 
continued so till the meeting broke up, when 
one was kind enough to rouse me. This was, 
therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, 
in Philadelphia. 

Walking down again toward the river, and, noo 
looking in the faces of people, I met a young 



54 



Benjamin Franklin 



Quaker man, whose countenance I liked, and, 
accosting him, requested he would tell me where 
a stranger could get lodging. We were then 

1105 near the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," 
says he, "is one place that entertains strangers, 
but it is not a reputable house; if thee wilt 
walk with me I'll show thee a better." 
He brought me to the Crooked Billet, in 

mo Water-street. Here I got a dinner; and, while 
I was eating it, several sly questions were 
asked me, as it seemed to be suspected from 
my youth and appearance that I might be some 
runaway. 

ins After dinner my sleepiness returned, and being 
shown to a bed, I lay down without undressing, 
and slept till six in the evening, was called to 
supper, went to bed again very early, and slept 
soundly till next morning. Then I made myself 

1120 as tidy as I could, and went to Andrew Bradford 
the printer's. I found in the shop the old 
man his father, whom I had seen at New York, 
and who, travelling on horseback, had got to 
Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to 

ii2o his son, who received me civilly, gave me a 
breakfast, but told me he did not at present 
want a hand, being lately supplied with one ; but 
there was another printer in town, lately set 
up, one Keimer, who, perhaps, might employ 

H30 me; if not, I should be welcome to lodge at his 



Benjamin Franklin 



55 



house, and he would give me a little work to 
do now and then till fuller business should offer. 

The old gentleman said he would go with me 
to the new printer; and when we found him, 
" Neighbor,' ' says Bradford, "I have brought ton35 
see you a young man of your business; perhaps 

Hi 




From HoDey'* "Lift of Benjamin Franilln" 

Governor Keith and Colonel French visit Franklin at Keimer's 
printing-house 

you may want such a one. " He asked me a 
few questions, put a composing stick in my 
hand to see how I worked, and then said he 
would employ me soon, though he had Justus 
then nothing for me to do; and, taking old 
Bradford, whom he had never seen before, to 
be one of the townspeople that had a good will 
for him, entered into a conversation on his 



56 



Benjamin Franklin 



W45 present undertaking and prospects; while Brad- 
ford, not discovering that he was the other 
printer's father, on Keimer's saying he expected 
soon to get the greatest part of the business into 
his own hands, drew him on by artful questions, 

ii5o and starting little doubts, to explain all his 
views, what interest he relied on, and in what 
manner he intended to proceed. I, who stood 
by and heard all, saw immediately that one of 
them was a crafty old sophister, and the other 

1155 a mere novice. Bradford left me with Keimer, 
who was greatly surprised when I told him who 
the old man was. 

Keimer's printing-house, I found, consisted 
of an old shattered press and one small, worn- 

us© out font of English, which he was then using 
himself, composing an Elegy on Aquila Rose, 
before mentioned, an ingenious young man, of 
excellent character, much respected in the town, 
clerk of the Assembly, and a pretty poet. Keimer 

lies made verses too, but very indifferently. He 
could not be said to write them, for his manner 
was to compose them in the types directly out 
of his head. So there being no copy, but one 
pair of cases, and the Elegy likely to require all 

ino the letter, no one could help him. I endeavored 
to put his press (which he had not yet used, 
and of which he understood nothing) into order 
fit to be worked with; and, promising to come 



Benjamin Franklin 



57 



and print off his Elegy as soon as he should 
have got it ready, I returned to Bradford's, ins 
who gave me a little job to do for the present, 
and there I lodged and dieted. A few days after, 
Keimer sent for me to print off the Elegy. And 
now he had got another pair of cases, and a 
pamphlet to reprint, on which he set me tonso 
work. 

These two printers I found poorly qualified 
for their business. Bradford had not been 
bred to it, and was very illiterate; and Keimer, 
though something of a scholar, was a merenss 
compositor, knowing nothing of presswork. He 
had been one of the French prophets, and could 
act their enthusiastic agitations. At this time 
he did not profess any particular religion, but 
something of all on occasion; was very ignorant nw 
of the world, and had, as I afterward found, 
a good deal of the knave in his composition. 
He did not like my lodging at Bradford's while 
I worked with him. He had a house, indeed, 
but without furniture, so he could not lodge me ; "95 
but he got me a lodging at Mr. Read's, before 
mentioned, who was the owner of his house; and, 
my chest and clothes being come by this time, 
I made rather a more respectable appearance 
in the eyes of Miss Read than I had done when 1200 
she first happened to see me eating my roll in 
the street. 



58 



Benjamin Franklin 



I began now to have some acquaintance 
among the young people of the town, that were 
lacs lovers of reading, with whom I spent my eve- 




Courteay of the Historical Society of Peaniy'.Tsnia 

Sir William Keith 

nings very pleasantly; and gaining money by my 
industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably, 
forgetting Boston as much as I could, and not 
desiring that any there should know where I 
1210 resided, except my friend Collins, who was in my 



Benjamin Franklin 



59 



secret, and kept it when I wrote to him. At 
length an incident happened that sent me back 
again much sooner than I had intended. I had 
a brother-in-law, Robert Holmes, master of a 
sloop that traded between Boston and Dela- 1215 
ware. He being at Newcastle, forty miles below 
Philadelphia, heard there of me, and wrote me 
a letter mentioning the concern of my friends 
in Boston at my abrupt departure, assuring me 
of their good will to me, and that every thing 1220 
would be accommodated to my mind if I would 
return, to which he exhorted me very earnestly. 
I wrote an answer to his letter, thanked him 
for his advice, but stated my reasons for quit- 
ting Boston fully and in such a light as to 1225 
convince him I was not so wrong as he had 
apprehended. 

Sir William Keith, governor of the province, 
was then at Newcastle, and Captain Holmes, 
happening to be in company with him when 1230 
my letter came to hand, spoke to him of me, 
and showed him the letter. The governor read 
it, and seemed surprised when he was told my age. 
He said I appeared a young man of promising 
parts, and therefore should be encouraged; the 1235 
printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones; 
and, if I would set up there, he made no doubt 
I should succeed; for his part, he would procure 
me the public business,"and do me every other 



6o 



Benjamin Franklin 



1240 service in his power. This my brother-in-law 
afterwards told me in Boston, but I knew as yet 
nothing of it ; when, one day, Keimer and I being 
at work together near the window, we saw the 
^governor and another gentleman (which proved 

ims to be Colonel French, of Newcastle), finely 
dressed, come directly across the street to our 
house, and heard them at the door. 

Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a 
visit to him; but the governor inquired for me, 

1250 came up, and with a condescension and polite- 
ness I had been quite unused to, made me many 
compliments, desired to be acquainted with me, 
blamed me kindly for not having made myself 
known to him when I first came to the place, 

1255 and w r ould have me away with him to the tavern, 
where he was going with Colonel French to 
taste, as he said, some excellent Madeira. I 
was not a little surprised, and Keimer stared 
like a pig poisoned. I went, however, with the 

i25o governor and Colonel French to a tavern, at the 
corner of Third-street, and over the Madeira he 
proposed my setting up my business, laid before 
me the probabilities of success, and both he and 
Colonel French assured me I should have their 

1265 interest and influence in procuring the public 
business of both governments. On my doubt- 
ing whether my father would assist me in it, Sir 
William said he would give me a letter to him, 



Benjamin Franklin 



61 



in which he would state the advantages, and he 
did not doubt of prevailing with him. So it 1270 
was concluded I should return to Boston in the 
first vessel, with the governor's letter recom- 
mending me to my father. In the mean time 
the intention was to be kept a secret, and I 
went on working with Keimer as usual, the 1275 
governor sending for me now and then to dine 
with him, a very great honor I thought it, and 
conversing with me in the most affable, famil- 
iar, and friendly manner imaginable. 

About the end of April, 1724, a little vessel isao 
offered for Boston. I took leave of Keimer as 
going to see my friends. The governor gave me 
an ample letter, saying many flattering things 
of me to my father, and strongly recommending 
the project of my setting up at Philadelphia as 1235 
a thing that must make my fortune. We struck 
on a shoal in going down the bay, and sprung a 
leak; we had a blustering time at sea, and were 
obliged to pump almost continually, at which I 
took my turn. We arrived safe, however, at 1290 
Boston in about a fortnight. I had been absent 
seven months, and my friends had heard noth- 
ing of me; for my brother Holmes was not yet 
returned, and had not written about me. My 
unexpected appearance surprised the family; all 1205 
were, however, very glad to see me, and made 
me welcome, except my brother. I went to 



62 



Benjamin Franklin 



see him at his printing-house. I was better 
dressed than ever while in his service, having a 
1300 genteel new suit from head to foot, a watch, 
and my pockets lined with near five pounds 
sterling in silver. He received me not very 
frankly, looked me all over, and turned to his 
work again. 

i30o The journeymen were inquisitive where I 
had been, what sort of a country it was, and 
how I liked it. I praised it much, and the 
happy life I led in it, expressing strongly my 
intention of returning to it; and, one of them 

1310 asking what kind of money we had there, I 
produced a handful of silver, and spread it before 
them, which was a kind of raree-show they had 
not been used to, paper being the money of 
Boston. Then I took an opportunity of letting 

1315 them see my watch; and, lastly (my brother 
still grum and sullen), I gave them a piece of 
eight to drink, and took my leave. This visit 
of mine offended him extremely; for, when my 
mother some time after spoke to him of a recon- 

i32d ciliation, . and of her wishes to see us on good 
terms together, and that we might live for the 
future as brothers, he said I had insulted him 
in such a manner before his people that he 
could never forget or forgive it. In this, how- 

i32s ever, he was mistaken. 

My father received the governor's letter with 



Benjamin Franklin 



63 



some apparent surprise, but said little of it 
to me for some days, when Captain Holmes 
returning he showed it to him, asked him if he 
knew Keith, and what kind of man he was; 1330 
adding his opinion that he must be of small dis- 
cretion to think of setting a boy up in business 
who wanted yet three years of being at man's 
estate. Holmes said what he could in favor of 
the project, but my father was clear in the 1335 
impropriety of it, and at last gave a flat denial 
to it. Then he wrote a civil letter to Sir William, 
thanking him for the patronage he had so kindly 
offered me, but declining to assist me as yet in 
setting up, I being, in his opinion, too young to 1340 
be trusted with the management of a business 
so important, and for which the preparation 
must be so expensive. 

My friend and companion Collins, who was a 
clerk in the post-office, pleased with the account ^ 
I gave him of my new country, determined to 
go thither also; and, while I waited for my 
father's determination, he set out before me by 
land to Rhode Island, leaving his books, which 
were a pretty collection of mathematics and 1350 
natural philosophy, to come with mine and me 
to New York, where he proposed to wait 
for me. 

My father, though he did not approve Sir Wil- 
liam's proposition, was yet pleased that I had 1355 



6 4 



Benjamin Franklin 



been able to obtain so advantageous a character 
from a person of such note where I had resided, 
and that I had been so industrious and careful 
as to equip myself so handsomely in so short a 

"so time; therefore, seeing no prospect of an accom- 
modation between my brother and me, he 
gave his consent to my returning again to Phil- 
adelphia, advised me to behave respectfully to 
the people there, endeavor to obtain the general 

1365 esteem, and avoid lampooning and libelling, to 
which he thought I had too much inclination, 
telling me that by steady industry and a pru- 
dent parsimony I might save enough by the 
time I was one-and-twenty to set me up; and 

1370 that, if I came near the matter, he would help 
me out with the rest. This was all I could 
obtain, except some small gifts as tokens of his 
and my mother's love, when I embarked again 
for New York, now with their approbation and 

1375 their blessing. 

The sloop putting in at Newport, Rhode 
Island, I visited my brother John, who had been 
married and settled there some years. He 
received me very affectionately, for he always 

i38o loved me. A friend of his, one Vernon, having 
some money due to him in Pennsylvania, about 
thirty-five pounds currency, desired I would 
receive it for him, and keep it till I had his 
directions what to remit it in. Accordingly, he 



Benjamin Franklin 



65 



gave me an order. This afterwards occasioned isss 
me a good deal of uneasiness. 

At Newport we took in a number of passen- 
gers for New York, among which were two 
young women, companions, and a grave, sensi- 
ble, matron-like Quaker woman, with her atten- 1390 
dants. I had shown an obliging readiness to 
do her some little services, which impressed her 
I suppose with a degree of good will toward 
me; therefore, when she saw a daily grow- 
ing familiarity between me and the two young 1395 
women, which they appeared to encourage, she 
took me aside, and said, 4 'Young man, I am 
concerned for thee, as thou has no friend with 
thee, and seems not to know much of the world, 
or of the snares youth is exposed to; depend woo 
upon it, those are very bad women; I can see 
it in all their actions; and if thee art not upon 
thy guard, they will draw thee into some dan- 
ger; they are strangers to thee, and I advise 
thee, in a friendly concern for thy welfare, touos 
have no acquaintance with them. " As I seemed 
at first not to think so ill of them as she did, 
she mentioned some things she had observed 
and heard that had escaped my notice, but now 
convinced me she was right. I thanked her for mo 
her kind advice, and promised to follow it. 
When we arrived at New York, they told me 

where they lived, and invited me to come and 
5 



66 



Benjamin Franklin 



see them; but I avoided it, and it was well I 

1*15 did; for the next day the captain missed a silver 
spoon and some other things that had been 
taken out of his cabin, and, knowing that these 
were a couple of strumpets, he got a warrant 
to search their lodgings, found the stolen goods, 

H2o and had the thieves punished. So, though we 
had escaped a sunken rock, which we scraped 
upon in the passage, I thought this escape of 
rather more importance to me. 

At New York I found my friend Collins, who 

1425 had arrived there some time before me. We 
had been intimate from children, and had read 
the same books together ; but he had the advan- 
tage of more time for reading and studying, and 
a wonderful genius for mathematical learning, 

1480 in which he far outstripped me. While I lived in 
Boston, most of my hours of leisure for conver- 
sation were spent with him, and he continued a 
sober as well as an industrious lad; was much 
respected for his learning by several of the 

H35 clergy and other gentlemen, and seemed to 
promise making a good figure in life. But, 
during my absence, he had acquired a habit of 
sotting with brandy; and I found by his own 
account, and what I heard from others, that he 

H40 had been drunk every day since his arrival at 
New York, and behaved very oddly. He had 
gamed, too, and lost his money, so that I was 



Benjamin Franklin 



6 7 



obliged to discharge his lodgings, and defray his 
expenses to and at Philadelphia, which proved 
extremely inconvenient to me. 

The then governor of New York, Burnet (son 
of Bishop Burnet), hearing from the captain 
that a young man, one of his passengers, had 
a great many books, desired he would bring me 
to see him. I waited upon him accordingly, 1450 
and should have taken Collins with me but that 
he was not sober. The governor treated me with 
great civility, showed me his library, which was 
a very large one, and we had a good deal of 
conversation about books and authors. This 1455 
was the second governor who had done me the 
honor to take notice of me; which, to a poor 
boy like me, was very pleasing. 

We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on 
the way Vernon's money, without which we hso 
could hardly have finished our journey. Collins . 
wished to be employed in some counting-house; 
but, whether they discovered his dramming by 
his breath, or by his behavior, though he had 
some recommendations, he met with no success wes 
in any application, and continued lodging and 
boarding at the same house with me, and at my 
expense. Knowing I had that money of Ver- 
non's, he was continually borrowing of me, 
still promising repayment as soon as he should hto 
be in business. At length he had got so much 



68 



Benjamin Franklin 



of it that I was distressed to think what I should 
do in case of being called on to remit it. 

His drinking continued, about which we 

H75 sometimes quarreled; for, when a little intoxi- 
cated, he was very fractious. Once, in a boat 
on the Delaware with some other young men, 
he refused to row in his turn. "I will be rowed 
home, " says he. "We will not row you, " says 

H8o I. "You must, or stay all night on the water,' ' 
says he, "just as you please." The others said, 
"Let us row; what signifies it?" But, my 
mind being soured with his other conduct, I 
continued to refuse. So he swore he would 

1485 make me row, or throw me overboard; and 
coming along, stepping on the thwarts, toward 
me, when he came up and struck at me, 1 clapped 
my hand under his crutch, and, rising, pitched 
him head-foremost into the river. I knew he 

1490 was a good swimmer, and so was under little 
concern about him; but before he could get 
round to lay hold of the boat, we had with a 
few strokes pulled her out of his reach; and 
ever ,when he drew near the boat, we asked 

1495 if he would row, striking a few strokes to slide 
her away from him. He was ready to die with 
vexation, and obstinately would not promise to 
row. However, seeing him at last beginning 
to tire, we lifted him in and brought him 

isoo home dripping wet in the evening. We hardly 



Benjamin Franklin 



69 



exchanged a civil word afterwards, and a West 
India captain, who had a commission to procure 
a tutor for the sons of a gentleman at Barbados, 
happening to meet with him, agreed to carry 
him thither. He left me then, promising to remit 1505 
me the first money he should receive in order 
to discharge the debt; but I never heard of 
him after. 

The breaking into this money of Vernon's 
was one of the first great errata of my life; andisio 
this affair showed that my father was not much 
out in his judgment when he supposed me too 
young to manage business of importance. But 
Sir William, on reading his letter, said he was 
too prudent. There was great difference in per- 1515 
sons; and discretion did not always accompany 
years, nor was youth always without it. "And 
since he will not set you up, " says he, "I will 
do it myself. Give me an inventory of the 
things necessary to be had from England, and 1520 
I will send for them. You shall repay me 
when you are able; I am resolved to have a 
good printer here, and I am sure you must suc- 
ceed.' ' This was spoken with such an appear- 
ance of cordiality, that I had not the least doubt 1525 
of his meaning what he said. I had hitherto 
kept the proposition of my setting up a secret 
in Philadelphia, and I still kept it. Had it 
been known that I depended on the governor, 



70 



Benjamin Franklin 



i53o probably some friend, that knew him better, 
would have advised me not to rely on him, as 
I afterwards heard it as his known character to 
be liberal of promises which he never meant 
to keep. Yet, unsolicited as he was by me, how 

1535 could I think his generous offers insincere? I 
believed him one of the best men in the world. 

I presented him an inventory of a little 
printing-house, amounting by my computation 
to about one hundred pounds sterling. He 

1540 liked it, but asked me if my being on the spot 
in England to choose the types, and see that 
every thing was good of the kind, might not be 
of some advantage. "Then, " says he, "when 
there, you may make acquaintances, and estab- 

1545 Ksh correspondences in the bookselling and 
stationery way. M I agreed that this might be 
advantageous. "Then," says he, "get your- 
self ready to go with Annis"; which was the 
annual ship, and the only one at that time 

1550 usually passing between London and Philadel- 
phia. But it would be some months before 
Annis sailed, so I continued working with 
Keimer, fretting about the money Collins had 
got from me, and in daily apprehensions of being 

1555 called upon by Vernon, which, however, did 
not happen for some years after. 

I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in 
my first voyage from Boston, being becalmed 



Benjamin Franklin 



71 



off Block Island, our people set about catching 
cod, and hauled up a good many. Hitherto I iseo 
had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal 
food, and on this occasion I considered, with 
my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a 
kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them 
had, or ever could do us any injury that might ises 
justify the slaughter. All this seemed very 
reasonable. But I had formerly been a great 
lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the 
frying-pan, it smelled admirably well. I balanced 
some time between principle and inclination, till 1570 
I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I 
saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; 
then thought I, "If you eat one another, I 
don't see why we may n't eat you. " So I dined 
upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat 1575 
with other people, returning only now and 
then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So con- 
venient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, 
since it enables one to find or make a reason for 
every thing one has a mind to do. isso 

Keimer and I lived on a pretty good familiar 
footing, and agreed tolerably well, for he sus- 
pected nothing of my setting up. He retained 
a great deal of his old enthusiasms and loved 
argumentation. We therefore had many dispu-isss 
tations. I used to work him so with my Socratic 
method, and had trepanned him so often by 



72 



Benjamin Franklin 



questions apparent!} 7 so distant from any point 
we had in hand, and yet by degrees led to the 
1590 point, and brought him into difficulties and 
contradictions, that at last he grew ridiculously 
cautious, and would hardly answer me the most 
common question, without asking first: "What 
do you intend to infer from that?" 
However, it gave him so high an 
opinion of my abilities in the con- 
futing way, that he seriously proposed 
my being his colleague in a project he 
had of setting up a new sect. He was 
to preach the doctrines, and I was to 
confound all opponents. When he came 
to explain with me upon the doctrines, 
I found several conundrums which I 
objected to, unless I might have my way 
a little too, and introduce some of mine. 

Keimer wore his beard at full length, 
because somewhere in the Mosaic law 
it is said, "Thou shalt not mar the 
corners of thy beard." He likewise 
kept the Seventh day, Sabbath; and 
these two points were essentials with him. I 
disliked both; but agreed to admit them upon 
condition of his adopting the doctrine of using 
no animal food. "I doubt," said he, "my 
wis constitution will not bear that." I assured him 
it would, and that he would be better for it. He 



Courtety of the Hie- 
toric&lSociety of Penn. 

Franklin's 
thermometer 



Benjamin Franklin 



73 



was usually a great glutton, and I promised 
myself some diversion in half starving him. 
He agreed to try the practice, if I would keep 
him company. I did so, and we held it for 102a 
three months. We had our victuals dressed, 
and brought to us regularly by a woman in the 
neighborhood, who had from me a list of forty 
dishes, to be prepared for us at different times, 
in all which there was neither fish, flesh, none25 
fowl, and the whim suited me the better at this 
time from the cheapness of it, not costing us 
above eighteen pence sterling each per week. 
I have since kept several Lents most strictly, 
leaving the common diet for that, and that forisso 
the common, abruptly, without the least incon- 
venience, so that I think there is little in the 
advice of making those changes by easy grada- 
tions. I went on pleasantly, but poor Keimer 
suffered grievously, tired of the project, longed 1635 
for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and ordered a roast 
pig. He invited me and two women friends to 
dine with him; but, it being brought too soon 
upon table, he could not resist the temptation, 
and ate the whole before we came. 1540 

I had made some courtship during this time 
to Miss Read. I had a great respect and affec- 
tion for her, and had some reason to believe she 
had the same for me; but, as I was about to 
take a long voyage, and we were both veryi645 



74 



Benjamin Franklin 



young, only a little above eighteen, it was thought 
most prudent by her mother to prevent our 
going too far at present, as a marriage, if it 
was to take place, would be more convenient 

1650 after my return, when I should be, as I expected, 
set up in my business. Perhaps, too, she thought 
my expectations not so well founded as I imagined 
them to be. 

My chief acquaintances at this time were 

1655 Charles Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James 
Ralph, all lovers of reading. The two first 
were clerks to an eminent scrivener or convey- 
ancer in the town, Charles Brogden; the other 
was clerk to a merchant. Watson was a pious, 

lew sensible young man, of great integrity; the 
others rather more lax in their principles of 
religion, particularly Ralph, who, as well as 
Collins, had been unsettled by me, for which they 
both made me suffer. Osborne was sensible, 

1665 candid, frank; sincere and affectionate to his 
friends; but, in literary matters, too fond of 
criticising. Ralph was ingenious, genteel in his 
manners, and extremely eloquent; I think I 
never knew a prettier talker. Both of them 

i67o great admirers of poetry, and began to try their 
hands in little pieces. Many pleasant walks we 
four had together on Sundays into the woods, 
near Schuylkill, where we read to one another, 
and conferred on what we read. 



Benjamin Franklin 



75 



Ralph was inclined to pursue the study ofi675 
poetry, not doubting but he might become emi- 
nent in it, and make his fortune by it, alleging 
that the best poets must, when they first began 
to write, make as many faults as he did. Osborne 
dissuaded him, assured him he had no genius isso 
for poetry, and advised him to think of nothing 
beyond the business he was bred to; that, in 
the mercantile way, though he had no stock, 
he might, by his diligence and punctuality, 
recommend himself to employment as a factor iw 
and in time acquire wherewith to trade on his 
own account. I approved the amusing one's 
self with poetry now and then, so far as to 
improve one's language, but no farther. 

On this it was proposed that we should eachieoo 
of us, at our next meeting, produce a piece of 
our own composing, in order to improve by our 
mutual observations, criticisms, and corrections. 
As language and expression were what we had 
in view, we excluded all considerations of inven- 1695 
tion by agreeing that the task should be a ver- 
sion of the eighteenth Psalm, which describes 
the descent of Deity. When the time of our 
meeting grew nigh, Ralph called on me first, 
and let me know his piece was ready. I told^oo 
him I had been busy, and, having little incli- 
nation, had done nothing. He then showed me 
his piece for my opinion, and I much approved 



76 



Benjamin Franklin 



it, as it appeared to me to have great merit. 

no5 " Now, " says he, "Osborne never will allow the 
least merit in any thing of mine, but makes iooo 
criticisms out of mere envy. He is not so jealous 
of you; I wish, therefore, you would take this 
piece, and produce it as yours; I will pretend not 

1710 to have had time, and so produce nothing. We 
shall then see what he will say to it. " It was 
agreed, and I immediately transcribed it, that 
it might appear in my own hand. 

We met; Watson's performance was read; 

ni5 there were some beauties in it, but many defects. 
Osborne's was read; it was much better; Ralph 
did it justice; remarked some faults, but ap- 
plauded the beauties. He himself had noth- 
ing to produce. I was backward; seemed 

1720 desirous of being excused; had not had suffi- 
cient time to correct, etc.; but no excuse would 
be admitted; produce I must. It was read 
and repeated; Watson and Osborne gave up 
the contest, and joined in applauding it. Ralph 

1725 only made some criticisms, and proposed some 
amendments; but I defended my text. Osborne 
was against Ralph, and told him he was no 
better a critic than poet, so he dropped the 
argument. As they two went home together, 

1730 Osborne expressed himself still more strongly 
in favor of what he thought my production; 
having restrained himself before, as he said, 



Benjamin Franklin 



77 



lest I should think it flattery. "But who would 
have imagined, " said he, "that Franklin had 
been capable of such a performance; such 1735 
painting, such force, such fire! He has even 
improved the original. In his common conver- 
sation he seems to have no choice of words; he 
hesitates and blunders; and yet, good God! 
how he writes!" When we next met, Ralph 1740 
discovered the trick we had played him, and 
Osborne was a little laughed at. 

This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution 
of becoming a poet. I did all I could to dissuade 
him from it, but he continued scribbling verses 1745 
till Pope cured him. He became, however, a 
pretty good prose writer. More of him here- 
after. But, as I may not have occasion again 
to mention the other two, I shall just remark 
here, that Watson died in my arms a few years 1750 
after, much lamented, being the best of our set. 
Osborne went to the West Indies, where he 
became an eminent lawyer and made money, 
but died young. He and I had made a serious 
agreement, that the one who happened first tonss 
die should, if possible, make a friendly visit to 
the other, and acquaint him how he found things 
in that separate state. But he never fulfilled his 
promise. 

The governor, seeming to like my company, neo 
had me frequently to his house, and his setting 



78 



Benjamin Franklin 



me up was always mentioned as a fixed thing. I 
was to take with me letters recommendatory to 
a number of his friends, besides the letter of 
1765 credit to furnish me with the necessary money 
for purchasing the press and types, paper, etc. 
For these letters I was appointed to call at 




From Holley'fl "Life of Benjamin Franklin" 



Franklin going aboard the "London Hope" 

different times, when they were to be ready; but 
a future time was still named. Thus he went 

1770 on till the ship, whose departure too had been 
several times postponed, was on the point of 
sailing. Then, when I called to take my leave 
and receive the letters, his secretary, Dr. Bard, 
came out to me and said the governor was 

1775 extremely busy in writing, but would be down 



Benjamin Franklin 



79 



at Newcastle before the ship, and there the 
letters would be delivered to me. 

Ralph, though married, and having one child, 
had determined to accompany me on this 
voyage. It was thought he intended to estab-wo 
lish a correspondence, and obtain goods to sell on 
commission; but I found afterwards that, through 
some discontent with his wife's relations, he 
proposed to leave her on their hands, and never 
return again. Having taken leave of my friends, was 
and interchanged some promises with Miss 
Read, I left Philadelphia in the ship, which 
anchored at Newcastle. The governor was there; 
but when I went to his lodging, the secretary 
came to me from him with the civilest message 1790 
in the world, that he could not then see me, 
being engaged in business of the utmost impor- 
tance, but should send the letters to me on 
board, wished me heartily a good voyage and a 
speedy return, etc. I returned on board a little 1795 
puzzled, but still not doubting. 

Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a famous lawyer of 
Philadelphia, had taken passage in the same 
ship for himself and son, and with Mr. Den- 
ham, a Quaker merchant, and Messrs. Onion and isoo 
Russel, masters of an iron work in Maryland, 
had engaged the great cabin; so that Ralph 
and I were forced to take up with a berth in 
the steerage, and none on board knowing us, 



8o 



Benjamin Franklin 



1805 were considered as ordinary persons. But Mr. 
Hamilton and his son (it was James, since gov- 
ernor) returned from Newcastle to Philadelphia, 
the father being recalled by a great fee to plead 
for a seized ship; and, just before we sailed, 

isio Colonel French coming on board, and showing 
me great respect, I was more taken notice of, 
and, with my friend Ralph, invited by the other 
gentlemen to come into the cabin, there being 
now room. Accordingly, we removed thith'er. 

1815 Understanding that Colonel French had 
brought on board the governor's dispatches, I 
asked the captain for those letters that were to 
be put under my care. He said all were put into 
the bag together and he. could) not then come 

1820 at< them; » but, before we landed in England, I 
should have an opportunity of picking them 
out; so I was satisfied for the present, and we 
proceeded on our voyage. We had a sociable 
company in the cabin, and lived uncommonly 

1825 well, having the addition of all Mr. Hamilton's 
stores, who had laid in plentifully. In this 
passage Mr. Denham contracted a friendship 
for me that continued during his life. The 
voyage was otherwise not a pleasant one, as we 

i83o had a great deal of bad weather. 

When we came into the Channel, the captain 
kept his word with me, and gave me an oppor- 
tunity of examining the bag for the governor's 



Benjamin Franklin 81 

letters. I found none upon which my name 
was put as under my care. I picked out six ori835 
seven, that, by the handwriting, I thought 
might be the promised letters, especially as one 
of them was directed to Basket, the king's 
printer, and another to some stationer. We 
arrived in London the 24th of December, 1724. 1840 
I waited upon the stationer, who came first in 
my way, delivering the letter as from Governor 
Keith. "I don't know such a person, " says 
he; but, opening the letter, "O! this is from 
Riddlesden. I have lately found him to be ais^s 
complete rascal, and I will have nothing to do 
with him, nor receive any letters from him. " 
So, putting the letter into my hand, he turned on 
his heel and left me to serve some customer. I 
was surprised to find these were not the gov-isso 
ernor's letters; and, after recollecting and com- 
paring circumstances, I began to doubt his 
sincerity. I found my friend Denham, and 
opened the whole affair to him. He let me into 
Keith's character; told me there was not the 1*55 
least probability that he had written any letters 
for me; that no one, who knew him, had the 
smallest dependence on him; and he laughed at 
the notion of the governor's giving me a letter 
of credit, having, as he said, no credit to give, iseo 
On my expressing some concern about what I 
should do, he advised me to endeavor getting 



82 



Benjamin Franklin 



some employment in the way of my business. 
"Among the printers here, M said he, "you will 

1865 improve yourself, and when you return to 
America, you will set up to greater advantage." 

We both of us happened to know, as well as 
the stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, 
was a very knave. He had half ruined Miss 

i87o Read's father by persuading him to be bound 
for him. By this letter it appeared there was a 
secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of Ham- 
ilton (supposed to be then coming over with 
us); and that Keith was concerned in it with 

1875 Riddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of 
Hamilton's, thought he ought to be acquainted 
with it; so, when he arrived in England, which 
was soon after, partly from resentment and ill 
will to Keith and Riddlesden, and partly from 

i88o good will to him, I waited on him, and gave 
him the letter. He thanked me cordially, the 
information being of importance to him; and 
from that time he became my friend, greatly to 
my advantage afterwards on many occasions. 

1885 But what shall we think of a governor's play- 
ing such pitiful tricks, and imposing so grossly 
on a poor ignorant boy! It was a habit he had 
acquired. He wished to please everybody; and, 
having little to give, he gave expectations. He 

1890 was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty 
good writer, and a good governor for the people, 



Benjamin Franklin 



83 



though not for his constituents, the proprietaries, 
whose instructions he sometimes disregarded. 




Entrance to Little Britain, where Franklin lived while in London 

Several of our best laws were of his planning and 
passed during his administration. 1395 

Ralph and I were inseparable companions. 
We took lodgings together in Little Britain at 
three shillings and sixpence a week — as much as 
we could then afford. He found some relations, 



84 Benjamin Franklin 

1900 but they were poor, and unable to assist him. 
He now let me know his intentions of remaining 
in London, and that he never meant to return to 
Philadelphia. He had brought no money with 
him, the whole he could muster having been 

1905 expended in paying his passage. I had fifteen 
pistoles ; so he borrowed occasionally of me to sub- 
sist while he was looking out for business. He 
first endeavored to get into the playhouse, be- 
lieving himself qualified for an actor; but Wilkes, 

1910 to whom he applied, advised him candidly not to 
think of that employment, as it was impossible he 
should succeed in it. Then he proposed to Rob- 
erts, a publisher in Paternoster Row, to write for 
him a weekly paper like the Spectator on certain 

1915 conditions, which Roberts did not approve. Then 
he endeavored to get employment as a hackney 
writer, to copy for the stationers and lawyers 
about the Temple, but could find no vacancy. 
I immediately got into work at Palmer's, then 

1920 a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close, 
and here I continued near a year. I was pretty 
diligent, but spent with Ralph a good deal of 
my earnings in going to plays and other places 
of amusement. We had together consumed all 

1925 my pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand 
to mouth. He seemed quite to forget his wife 
and child, and I, by degrees, my engagements 
with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more 



Benjamin Franklin 



85 



than one letter, and that was to let her know I 
was not likely soon to return. This was another 1930 
of the great errata of my life, which I should wish 
to correct if I were to live it over again. In fact, 
by our expenses, I was constantly kept unable 
to pay my passage. 

At Palmer's I was employed in composing for 1935 
the second edition of Wollaston's Religion of 
Nature. Some of his reasonings not appearing 
to me well founded, I wrote a little metaphysi- 
cal piece in which I made remarks on them. It 
was entitled A Dissertation on Liberty and Neces- 1940 
sity, Pleasure and Pain. I inscribed it to my 
friend Ralph; I printed a small number. It 
occasioned my being more considered by Mr. 
Palmer as a young man of some ingenuity, though 
he seriously expostulated with me upon the 1945 
principles of my pamphlet, which to him appeared 
abominable. My printing this pamphlet was 
another erratum. While I lodged in Little 
Britain I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, 
a bookseller, whose shop was at the next door. 1950 
He had an immense collection of second-hand 
books. Circulating libraries were not then in 
use; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable 
terms, which I have now forgotten, I might 
take, read, and return any of his books. This 1 1955 
esteemed a great advantage, and I made as much 
use of it as I could. 



86 



Benjamin Franklin 



My pamphlet by some means falling into the 
hands of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a 
i960 book entitled The Infallibility of Human Judg- 
ment, it occasioned an acquaintance between us. 
He took great notice of me, called on me often 
to converse on those subjects, carried me to 
the Horns, a pale-ale house in Lane, Cheap- 
ly side, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, 
author of the Fable of the Bees, who had a club 
there, of which he was the soul, being a most 
facetious, entertaining companion. Lyons, too, 
introduced me to Dr. Pemberton, at Batson's 
i97o Coffee-house, who promised to give me an oppor- 
tunity, some time or other, of seeing Sir Isaac 
Newton, of which I was extremely desirous; 
but this never happened. 

I had brought over a few curiosities, among 
1975 which the principal was a purse made of the 
asbestos, which purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane 
heard of it, came to see me, and invited me 
to his house in Bloomsbury Square, where he 
showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me 
i98o to let him add that to the number, for which 
he paid me handsomely. 

In our house there lodged a young woman, a 
milliner, who, I think, had a shop in the Clois- 
ters. She had been genteelly bred, was sensible 
1985 and lively, and of most pleasing conversation. 
Ralph read plays to her in the evenings, they 



Benjamin Franklin 



87 



grew intimate, she took another lodging, and 
he followed her. They lived together some 
time; but, he being still out of business, and 
her income not sufficient to maintain them with 1990 
her child, he took a resolution of going from 
London, to try for a country school, which he 
thought himself well qualified to undertake, as 
he wrote an excellent hand, and was a master 
of arithmetic and accounts. This, however, he 1995 
deemed a business below him, and confident of 
future better fortune, when he should be unwill- 
ing to have it known that he once was so meanly 
employed, he changed his name, and did me the 
honor to assume mine; for I soon after had 2000 
a letter from him, acquainting me that he was 
settled in a small village (in Berkshire, I think 
it was, where he taught reading and writing to 
ten or a dozen boys, at sixpence each per week), 

recommending Mrs. T to my care, and 2005 

desiring me to write to him, directing for Mr. 
Franklin, schoolmaster, at such a place. 

He continued to write frequently, sending me 
large specimens of an epic poem which he was 
then composing, and desiring my remarks and 2010 
corrections. These I gave him from time to time, 
but endeavored rather to discourage his pro- 
ceeding. One of Young's Satires was then just 
published. I copied and sent him a great part 
of it, which set in a strong light the folly of 201s 



88 



Benjamin Franklin 



pursuing the Muses with any hope^of advance- 
ment by them. All was in vain; sheets of the 
poem continued to come by every post. In the 

meantime Mrs. T , having on his account 

2020 lost her friends and business, was often in dis- 
tresses, and used to send for me, and borrow 
what I could spare to help her out of them. I 

grew fond of her company. 
This angered Ralph and 
made a breach between 
us ; and, when he returned 
again to London, he let 
me know he thought I 
had cancelled all the obli- 
gations he had been under 
to me. So I found I was 
never to expect his repay- 
ing me what I lent to 
him, or advanced for him. 

^es y ofth 9 N.^lMuse^,Vr^con 1 D.C. ^ hOWeVCr, WaS I10t 

The press Franklin used in 

Watts' s printing-house in then of much consequence, 
London as he was totally unable; 

and in the loss of his friendship I found 
myself relieved from a burthen. I now began 
2040 to think of getting a little money beforehand, 
and, expecting better work, I left Palmer's to 
work at Watts's, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, a still 
greater printing-house. Here I continued all 
the rest of my stay in London. 




Benjamin Franklin 



89 



At my first admission into this printing-house 2045 
I took to working at press, imagining I felt a 
want of the bodily exercise I had been used to 
in America, where presswork is mixed with 
composing. I drank only water; the other 
workmen, near fifty in number, w r ere great guz-2050 
zlers of beer. On occasion, I carried up and 
down stairs a large form of types in each hand, 
when others carried but one in both hands. 
They wondered to see, from this and several 
instances, that the Water- American, as they called 2055 
me, was stronger than themselves, who drank 
strong beer! We had an alehouse boy who 
attended always in the house to supply the 
workmen. My companion at the press drank 
every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at2oeo 
breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint be- 
tween breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a 
pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and 
another when he had done his day's work. I 
thought it a detestable custom ; but it was nec- 2055 
essary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he 
might be strong to labor. I endeavored to con- 
vince him that the bodily strength afforded by 
beer could only be in proportion to the grain 
or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of 2070 
which it was made; that there was more flour 
in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore, if he 
would eat that with a pint of water, it would 



go Benjamin Franklin 

give him more strength than a quart of beer. 

2075 He drank on, however, and had four or five 
shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday 
night for that muddling liquor; an expense I was 
free from. And thus these poor devils keep 
themselves always under. 

2080 Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me 
in the composing-room, I left the pressmen; a 
new bien venu or sum for drink, being five shil- 
lings, was demanded of me by the compositors. 'I 
thought it an imposition, as I had paid below; 

2085 the master thought so too, and forbade my 
paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was 
accordingly considered as an excommunicate, 
and had so many little pieces of private mis- 
chief done me, by mixing my sorts, transposing 

sow my pages, breaking my matter, etc., etc., if I 
were ever so little out of the room, and all 
ascribed to the chapel ghost, which they said 
ever haunted those not regularly admitted, that, 
notwithstanding the master's protection, I found 
myself obliged to comply and pay the money, 
convinced of the folly of being on ill terms with 
those one is to live with continually. 
\ I was now on a fair footing with them, and 
soon acquired considerable influence. I pro- 

35oo posed some reasonable alterations in their chapel 
laws, and carried them against all opposition. 
From my example, a great part of them left their 



Benjamin Franklin 



9i 



muddling breakfast of beer, and bread, and cheese, 
finding they could with me be supplied from a 
neighboring house with a large porringer of hot 2105 
water-gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbed with 
bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price of 
a pint of beer, viz., three half -pence. This was 
a more comfortable as well as cheaper breakfast, 
and kept their heads clearer. Those who con- 2110 
tinued sotting with beer all day, were often, by 
not paying, out of credit at the alehouse, and 
used to make interest with me to get beer; their 
light, as they phrased it, being out. I watched 
the pay-table on Saturday night, and collected 2115 
what I stood engaged for them, having to pay 
sometimes near thirty shillings a week on their 
accounts. This, and my being esteemed a pretty 
good riggite, that is, a jocular verbal satirist, 
supported my consequence in the society. My 2120 
constant attendance (I never making a St. 
Monday) recommended me to the master; and my 
uncommon quickness at composing occasioned 
my being put upon all work of dispatch, which 
was generally better paid. So I went on now am 
very agreeably. 

My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, 
I found another in Duke-street, opposite to the 
Romish Chapel. It was two pair of stairs back- 
wards, at an Italian warehouse. A widow lady 2130 
kept the house; she had a daughter, and a maid 



92 



Benjamin Franklin 



servant, and a journeyman who attended the 
warehouse, but lodged abroad. After sending to 
inquire my character at the house where I last 

2135 lodged she agreed to take me in at the same 
rate, 3s. 6d. per week; cheaper, as she said, from 
the protection she expected in having a man lodge 
in the house. She w r as a widow, an elderly 
woman; had been bred a Protestant, being a 

2140 clergyman's daughter, but was converted to the 
Catholic religion by her husband, whose memory 
she much revered ; had lived much among people 
of distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes 
of them as far back as the time of Charles the 

2H5 Second. She was lame in her knees with the gout, 
and, therefore, seldom stirred out of her room, 
so sometimes wanted company; and hers was so 
highly amusing to me, that I was sure to spend 
an evening with her whenever she desired it. Our 

2150 supper was only half an anchovy each, on a very 
little strip of bread and butter, and half a pint 
of ale between us; but the entertainment was 
in her conversation. My always keeping good 
hours, and giving little trouble in the family, 

2155 made her unwilling to part with me; so that, when 
I talked of a lodging I had heard of, nearer my 
business, for two shillings a week, which, intent 
as I now was on saving money, made some differ- 
ence, she bid me not think of it, for she would 

2160 abate me two shillings a week for the future; so 



Benjamin Franklin 



93 



I remained with her at one shilling and sixpence 
as long as I stayed in London. 

In a garret of her house there lived a maiden 
lady of seventy, in the most retired manner, of 
whom my landlady gave me this account: thatzies 
she was a Roman Catholic, had been sent abroad 
when young, and lodged in a nunnery with an 
intent of becoming a nun; but, the country not 
agreeing with her, she returned to England, 
where, there being no nunnery, she had vowed to 2170 
lead the life of a nun, as near as might be done in 
those circumstances. Accordingly, she had given 
all her estate to charitable uses, reserving only 
twelve pounds a year to live on, and out of this 
sum she still gave a great deal in charity, living 2175 
herself on water-gruel only, and using no fire but to 
boil it. She had lived many years in that garret, 
being permitted to remain there gratis by suc- 
cessive Catholic tenants of the house below, as 
they deemed it a blessing to have her there. 2180 
A priest visited her to confess her every day. ' 1 1 
have asked her," says my landlady, 4 'how she, 
as she lived, could possibly find so much employ- 
ment for a confessor." ' 'Oh," said she, "it is 
impossible to avoid vain thoughts." I was per-2185 
mitted once to visit her. She was cheerful and 
polite, and conversed pleasantly. The room 
was clean, but had no other furniture than a 
mattress, a table with a crucifix and book, a stool 



94 



Benjamin Franklin 



2t9o which she gave me to sit on, and a picture over 
the chimney of Saint Veronica displaying her 
handkerchief, with the miraculous figure of 
Christ's bleeding face on it, which she explained 
to me with great seriousness. She looked pale, but 

2195 was never sick; and I give it as another instance 
on how small an income life and health may be 
supported. 

At Watts's printing-house I contracted an 
acquaintance with an ingenious young man, one 

22ooWygate, who, having wealthy relations, had 
been better educated than most printers; was a 
tolerable Latinist, spoke French, and loved read- 
ing. I taught him and a friend of his to swim at 
twice going into the river, and they soon became 

2205 good swimmers. They introduced me to some 
gentlemen from the country, who went to Chelsea 
by water to see the College and Don Saltero's 
curiosities. In our return, at the request of the 
company, whose curiosity Wygate had excited, 

2210 1 stripped and leaped into the river, and swam 
from near Chelsea to Blackfriar's, performing 
on the way many feats of activity, both upon 
and under the water, that surprised and pleased 
those to whom they were novelties. 

23i5 I had from a child been ever delighted with 
this exercise, had studied and practiced all 
Thevenot's motions and positions, added some 
of my own, aiming at the graceful and easy as 



Benjamin Franklin 



95 



well as the useful. All these I took this occasion 
of exhibiting to the company, and was much 2220 
flattered by their admiration; and Wygate, who 
was desirous of becoming a master, grew more 
and more attached to me on that account, as well 
as from the similarity of our studies. He at 
length proposed to me travelling all over Europe 2225 
together, supporting ourselves everywhere by 
working at our business. I was once inclined to 
it; but, mentioning it to my good friend, Mr. 
Denham, with whom I often spent an hour when 
I had leisure, he dissuaded me from it, advising 2230 
me to think only of returning to Pennsylvania, 
which he was now about to do. 

I must record one trait of this good man's 
character. He had formerly been in business at 
Bristol, but failed in debt to a number of people, 2235 
compounded and went to America. There, by 
a close application to business as a merchant, 
he acquired a plentiful fortune in a few years. 
Returning to England in the ship with me, he 
invited his old creditors to an entertainment, at 2240 
which he thanked them for the easy composition 
they had favored him with, and, when they 
expected nothing but the treat, every man at the 
first remove found under lis plate an order on 
a banker for the full amount of the unpaid 2245 
remainder, with interest. 

He now told me he was about to return to 



96 



Benjamin Franklin 



Philadelphia, and should carry over a great 
quantity of goods, in order to open a store there. 

2250 He proposed to take me over as his clerk, to keep 
his books, in which he would instruct me, 
copy his letters, and attend the store. He added, 
that, as soon as I should be acquainted with 
mercantile business, he would promote me by 

2355 sending me with a cargo of flour and bread, etc., 
to the West Indies, and procure me commissions 
from others which would be profitable; and, if 
I managed well, would establish me handsomely. 
The thing pleased me; for I was grown tired of 

2260 London, remembered with pleasure the happy 
months I had spent in Pennsylvania, and wished 
again to see it; therefore I immediately agreed 
on the terms of fifty pounds a year, Penn- 
sylvania money; less, indeed, than my present 

2265 gettings as a compositor, but affording a better 
prospect. 

I now took leave of printing, as I thought, for 
ever, and was daily employed in my new business, 
going about with Mr. Denham among the trades- 

2270 men to purchase various articles, and seeing them 
packed up, doing errands, calling upon workmen 
to dispatch, etc.; and, when all was on board, 
I had a few days' leisure. On one of these days, I 
■ was, to my surprise, sent for by a great man I knew 

2275 only by name, a Sir William Wyndham, and I 
waited upon him. He had heard by some means 



Benjamin Franklin 



97 



or other of my swimming from Chelsea to 
Blackfriar's, and of my teaching Wygate and 
another young man to swim in a few hours. He 
had two sons, about to set out on their travels; he 2280 
wished to have them first taught swimming, and 
proposed to gratify me handsomely if I would 
teach them. They were not yet come to town, 
and my stay was uncertain, so I could not under- 
take it; but from this incident I thought it likely 2235 
that, if I were to remain in England and open 
a swimming-school, I might get a good deal of 
money; and it struck me so strongly, that, had 
the overture been sooner made me, probably I 
should not so soon have returned to America. 2290 
After many years, you and I had something of 
more importance to do with one of these sons 
of Sir William Wyndham, become Earl of Egre- 
mont, which I shall mention in its place. 

Thus I spent about eighteen months in Lon-2295 
don; most part of the time I worked hard at my 
business, and spent but little upon myself except 
in seeing plays and in books. My friend Ralph 
had kept me poor; he owed me about twenty- 
seven pounds, which I was now never likely to 2300 
receive; a great sum out of my small earnings! 
I loved him, notwithstanding, for he had many 
amiable qualities. I had by no means improved 
my fortune; but I had picked up some very 
ingenious acquaintance, whose conversation was 2305 



9 8 



Benjamin Franklin 



of great advantage to me; and I had read con- 
siderably. 

We sailed from Gravesend on the 23d of July, 

1726. For the incidents of the voyage, I refer 
euyou to my Journal, where you will find them all 
minutely related. Perhaps the most important 
part of that journal is the plan to be found in it, 
which I formed at sea, for regulating my future 
conduct in life. It is the more remarkable, as 
23i5 being formed when I was so young, and yet 
being pretty faithfully adhered to quite through 
to old age. 

We landed in Philadelphia on the nth of Oc- 
tober, where I found sundry alterations. Keith 

2320 was no longer governor, being superseded by 
Major Gordon. I met him walking the streets 
as a common citizen. He seemed a little ashamed 
at seeing me, but passed without saying any thing. 
I should have been as much ashamed at seeing 

^25 Miss Read, had not her friends, despairing with 
reason of my return after the receipt of my letter, 
persuaded her to marry another, one Rogers, a 
potter, which was done in my absence. With 
him, however, she was never happy, and soon 

2330 parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him 
or bear his name, it being now said that he had 
another wife. He was a worthless fellow, though 
an excellent workman, which was the temptation 
to her friends. He got into debt, ran away in 



Benjamin Franklin 



99 



1727 or 1728, went to the West Indies, and died 2335 
there. Keimer had got a better house, a shop well 
supplied with stationery, plenty of new types, a 
number of hands, though none good, and seemed 
to have a great deal of business. 

Mr. Denham took a store in Water-street, 2349 
where we opened our goods; I attended the 
business diligently, studied accounts, and grew, 
in a little time, expert at selling. We lodged and 
boarded together; he counselled me as a father, 
having a sincere regard for me. I respected and 2345 
loved him, and we might have gone on together 
very happy; but, in the beginning of February, 
1727, when I had just passed my twenty -first 
year, we were both taken ill. My distemper 
was a pleurisy, which very nearly carried me off. ^ 
I suffered a good deal, gave up the point in 
my own mind, and was rather disappointed when 
I found myself recovering, regretting, in some 
degree, that I must now, some time or other, 
have all that disagreeable work to do over again. 2355 
I forget what his distemper was ; it held him a long 
time, and at length carried him off. He left me 
a small legacy in a nuncupative will, as a token 
of his kindness for me, and he left me once more 
to the wide world; for the store was taken into23eo 
the care of his executors, and my employment 
under him ended. 

My brother-in-law, Holmes, being now at 



100 



Benjamin Franklin 



Philadelphia, advised my return to my business; 

2365 and Keimer tempted me, wittfan offer of large 
wages by the year, to come and take the manage- 
ment of his printing-house, that he might better 
attend his stationer's shop. I had heard a bad 
character of him in London from his wife and her 

2370 friends, and was not fond of having any more to 
do with him. I tried for farther employment as 
a merchant's clerk, but, not readily meeting with 



gasman of full age, bred to the same, of uncommon 
natural parts, and great wit and humor, but a 
little idle. These he had agreed with at extreme 
low wages per week, to be raised a shilling every 
three months, as they would deserve by improv- 

2390 ing in their business ; and the expectation of these 
high wages, to come on hereafter, was what he 
had drawn them in with. Meredith was to work 




Franklin's music stand 



any, I closed again with 
Keimer. I found in his 
house these hands : Hugh 
Meredith, a Welsh Penn- 
sylvanian, thirty years 
of age, bred to country 
work; honest, sensible, 
had a great deal of solid 
observation, was some- 
thing of a reader, but 
given to drink. Stephen 
Potts, a young country- 



Benjamin Franklin 



101 



at press, Potts at book-binding, which he, by- 
agreement, was to teach them, though he knew 

neither one nor t'other. John , a wild 2395 

Irishman, brought up to no business, whose 
service, for four years, Keimer had purchased 
from the captain of a ship; he, too, was to be 
made a pressman. George Webb, an Oxford 
scholar, whose time for four years he had likewise 2400 
bought, intending him for a compositor, of whom 
more presently; and David Harry, a country boy, 
whom he had taken apprentice. 

I soon perceived that the intention of engaging 
me at wages so much higher than he had been 2405 
used to give, was, to have these raw, cheap 
hands formed through me; and, as soon as I had 
instructed them, then they being all articled to 
him, he should be able to do without me. I went 
on, however, very cheerfully, put his printing- 2410 
house in order, which had been in great confusion, 
and brought his hands by degrees to mind their 
business and to do it better. 

It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar 
in the situation of a bought servant. He was 2415 
not more than eighteen years of age, and gave 
me this account of himself; that he was born in 
Gloucester, educated at a grammar-school there, 
had been distinguished among the scholars for 
some apparent superiority in performing his part, 2420 
when they exhibited plays; he belonged to the 



102 



Benjamin Frankli n 



Witty Club there, and had written some pieces 
in prose and verse, which were printed in the 
Gloucester newspapers; thence he was sent to 

2425 Oxford; where he continued about a year,^but 
not well satisfied, wishing of all things to see Lon- 
don, and become a player. At length, receiving 
his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, instead 
of discharging his debts he walked out of town, 

2430 hid his gown in a furze bush, and . footed it to 
London, where, having no friends to advise him, 
he fell into bad company, soon spent his guineas, 
found no means of being introduced among the 
players, grew necessitous, pawned his clothes, 

2435 and wanted bread. Walking the street very hun- 
gry, and not knowing what to do with himself, a 
crimp's bill was put into his hand, offering imme- 
diate entertainment and encouragement to such 
as would bind themselves to serve in America. 

2440 He went directly, signed the indentures, was 
put into the ship, and came over, never writing 
a line to acquaint his friends what was become 
of him. He was lively, witty, good-natured, 
and a pleasant companion, but idle, thoughtless, 

2445 and imprudent to the last degree. 

John, the Irishman, soon ran away; with the 
rest I began to live very agreeably, for they all 
respected me the more, as they found Keimer 
incapable of instructing them, and that from me 

2450 they learned something daily. We never worked 



Benjamin Franklin 



on Saturday, that being Keimer 's Sabbath, so 
I had two days for. reading. My acquaintance 
with ingenious people in the town increased. 
Keimer himself treated me with great civility 
and apparent regard, and nothing now made me 2455 
uneasy but my debt to Vernon, which I was 
yet unable to pay, being hitherto but a poor 
economist. He, however, kindly made no 
demand of it. 

Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and 2466 
there was no letter-founder in America; I had 
seen types cast at James's in London, but with- 
out much attention to the manner; however, I 
now contrived a mould, made use of the letters 
we had as puncheons, struck the matrices in lead, 2455 
and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all 
deficiencies. I also engraved several things on 
occasion; I made the ink; I was warehouseman, 
and everything, and, in short, quite a factotum. 

But, however serviceable I might be, I found 2470 
that my services became eve^ day of less im- 
portance, as the other hands improved in the 
business; and, when Keimer paid my second 
quarter's wages, he let me know that he % felt 
them too heavy, and thought I should make an 2475 
abatement. He grew by degrees less civil, put on 
more of the master, frequently found fault, was 
captious, and seemed ready for an outbreaking. 
I went on, nevertheless, with a good deal of 



104 Benjamin Franklin 

2480 patience, thinking that his encumbered circum- 
stances were partly the cause. At length a trifle 
snapped our connections; for, a great noise hap- 
pening near the court-house, I put my head out 
of the window to see what was the matter. Kei- 

2485 mer, being in the street, looked up and saw me, 
called out to me in a loud voice and angry tone 
to mind my business, adding some reproachful 
words, that nettled me the more for their pub- 
licity, all the neighbors who were looking out on 

2490 the same occasion being witnesses how I was 
treated. He came up immediately into the 
printing-house, continued the quarrel, high words 
passed on both sides, he gave me the quarter's 
warning we had stipulated, expressing a wish 

2495 that he had not been obliged to so long a warning. 
I told him that his wish was unnecessary, for I 
would leave him that instant; and so, taking my 
hat, walked out of doors, desiring Meredith, whom 
I saw below, to take care of some things I left, 

25oo and bring them to my lodgings. 

Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when 
we talked my affair over. He had conceived a 
great regard for me, and was very unwilling that 
I should leave the house while he remained in 

2505 it. He dissuaded me from returning to my 
native country, which I began to think of; 
he reminded me that Keimer was in debt for 
all he possessed; that his creditors began to be 



Benjamin Franklin 



™5 



uneasy; that he kept his shop miserably, sold 
often without profit for ready money, and often 2510 
trusted without keeping accounts; that he must 
therefore fail, which would make a vacancy I 
might profit of. I objected my want of money. 
He then let me know that his father had a high 
opinion of me, and from some discourse that had 2515 
passed between them, he was sure would advance 
money to set us up, if I would enter into partner- 
ship with him. ' 'My time," says he, "will be 
out with Keimer in the spring; by that time we 
may have our press and types in from London. 2520 
I am sensible I am no workman; if you like it, 
your skill in the business shall be set against 
the stock I furnish, and we will share the profits 
equally/ ' 

The proposal was agreeable, and I consented; 2525 
his father was in town and approved of it; the 
more as he saw I had great influence with his son, 
had prevailed on him to abstain long from dram- 
drinking, and he hoped might break him of that 
wretched habit entirely, when we came to be so 2530 
closely connected. I gave an inventory to the 
father, who carried it to a merchant; the things 
were sent for, the secret was to be kept till they 
should arrive, and in the mean time I was to 
get work, if I could, at the other printing-house. 2535 
But I found no vacancy there, and so remained 
idle a few days, when Keimer, on a prospect of 



io6 * 



Benjamin Franklin 



being employed to print some paper money in 
New Jersey, which would require cuts and various 

2540 types that I only could supply, and apprehend- 
ing Bradford might engage me and get the job 
from him, sent me a very civil message, that old 
friends should not part for a few words, the effect 
of sudden passion, and wishing me to return. 

2545 Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it would 
give more opportunity for his improvement under 
my daily instructions ; so I returned, and we went 
on more smoothly than for some time before. 
The New Jersey job was obtained, I contrived a 

2550 copper-plate press for it, the first that had been 
seen in the country; I cut several ornaments and 
checks for the bills. We went together to Bur- 
lington, where I executed the whole to satisfac- 
tion; and he received so large a sum for the work 

2555 as to be enabled thereby to keep his head much 
longer above water. 

At Burlington I made an acquaintance with 
many principal people of the province. Several 
of them had been appointed by the Assembly a 

2560 committee to attend the press, and take care 
that no more bills were printed than the law 
directed. They were therefore, by turns, con- 
stantly with us, and generally he who attended 
brought with him a friend or two for company. 

25GoMy mind having been much more improved by 
reading than Keimer's, I suppose it was for that 



Benjamin Franklin 



ioj 



reason my conversation seemed to be more valued. 
They had me to their houses, introduced me to 
their friends, and showed me much civility; while 
he, though the master, was a little neglected. 2570 
In truth, he was an odd fish; ignorant of common 
life, fond of rudely opposing received opinions, 
slovenly to extreme dirtiness, enthusiastic in some 
points of religion, and a little knavish withal. 

We continued there near three months; and 2575 
by that time I could reckon among my acquired 
friends, Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the secre- 
tary of the Province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph 
Cooper, and several of the Smiths, members of 
Assembly, and Isaac Decow, the surveyor-gen- 2580 
erai. The latter was a shrewd, sagacious old 
man, who told me that he began for himself, 
when young, by wheeling clay for the brick- 
makers, learned to write after he was of age, 
carried the chain for surveyors, who taught him 258.5 
surveying, and he had now by his industry, 
acquired a good estate; and says he, "I foresee 
that you will soon work this man out of his 
business, and make a fortune in it at Philadel- 
phia/ ' He had not then the least intimation 2590 
of my intention to set up there or anywhere. 
These friends were afterwards of great use to me, 
as I occasionally was to some of them. They all 
continued their regard for me as long as they lived. 

Before I enter upon my public appearance in 2595 



io8 



Benjamin Franklin 



business, it may be well to let you know the 
then state of my mind with regard to my prin- 
ciples and morals, that you may see how far those 
influenced the future events of my life. My 
parents had early given me relig- 
ious impressions, and brought me 
through my childhood piously in 
the Dissenting way. But I was 
scarce fifteen, when, after doubt- 
ing by turns of several points, as 
I found them disputed in the 
different books I read, I began 
to doubt of Revelation itself. 
Some books against Deism fell 
into my hands ; they were said to 
be the substance of sermons 
preached at Boyle's Lectures. It 
happened that they wrought an 
effect on me quite contrary to 
what was intended by them; 
for the arguments of the Deists, 
which were quoted to be refuted, 
appeared to me much stronger 
than the refutations; in short, I soon became a 
2620 thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some 
others, particularly Collins and Ralph; but, each 
of them having afterwards wronged me greatly 
without the least compunction, and recollecting 
Keith's conduct towards me (who was another 




Franklin's clock 



Benjamin Franklin 



log 



freethinker), and my own towards Vernon and 2025 
Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, 
I began to suspect that this doctrine, though it 
might be true, was not very useful. My London 
pamphlet, which had for its motto these lines of 
Dry den : 2030 

"Whatever is, is right. Though purblind man 
Sees but a part o' the chain, the nearest link: 
His eyes not carrying to the equal beam, 
That poises all above"; 

and from the attributes of God, his infinite wis- 2635 
dom, goodness and power, concluded that nothing 
could possibly be wrong in the world, and that 
vice and virtue were empty distinctions, no such 
things existing, appeared now not so clever a 
performance as I once thought it; and I doubted 2540 
whether some error had not insinuated itself 
unperceived into my argument, so as to infect 
all that followed, as is common in metaphysical 
reasonings. 

I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and 2645 
integrity in dealings between man and man were 
of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; 
and I formed written resolutions, which still 
remain in my journal book, to practice them 
ever while I lived. Revelation had indeed no 2650 
weight with me, as such; but I entertained an 
opinion that, though certain actions might not be 
bad because they were forbidden by it, or good 



110 



Benjamin Franklin 



because it commanded them, yet probably those 

2655 actions might be forbidden because they were bad 
for us, or commanded because they were beneficial 
to us, in their own natures, all the circumstances 
of things considered. And this persuasion, with 
the kind hand of Providence, or some guardian 

2660 angel, or accidental favorable circumstances and 
situations, or all together, preserved me, through 
this dangerous time of youth, and the hazardous 
situations I was sometimes in among strangers, 
remote from the eye and advice of my father, 

2665 without any willful gross immorality or injus- 
tice, that might have been expected from my 
want of religion. I say willful, because the 
instances I have mentioned had something of 
necessity in them, from my youth, inexperience, 

2670 and the knavery of others. I had therefore a 
tolerable character to begin the world with; I 
valued it properly, and determined to preserve it. 

We had not been long returned to Philadelphia 
before the new types arrived from London. We 

207o settled with Keimer, and left him by his con- 
sent before he heard of it. We found a house to 
hire near the market, and took it. To lessen 
the rent, which was then but twenty-four pounds 
a year, though I have since known it to let for 

ssso seventy, we took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, 
and his family, who were to pay a considerable 
part of it to us, and we to board with them. We 



Benjamin Franklin 



in 



had scarce opened our letters and put our press 
in order, before George House, an acquaintance 
of mine, brought a countryman to us, whom he 268.5 
had met in the street inquiring for a printer. 
All our cash was now expended in the variety of 
particulars we had been obliged to procure, and 
this countryman's five shillings, being our first- 
fruits, and coming so seasonably, gave me more 2090 
pleasure than any crown I have since earned; 
and the gratitude I felt toward House has made 
me often more ready than perhaps I should 
otherwise have been to assist young beginners. 

There are croakers in every country, always 2695 
boding its ruin. Such a one then lived in Phila- 
delphia; a person of note, an elderly man, with 
a wise look and a very grave manner of speak- 
ing; his name was Samuel Mickle. This gentle- 
man, a stranger to me, stopped one day at my 2700 
door, and asked me if I was the young man who 
had lately opened a new printing-house. Being 
answered in the affirmative, he said he was sorry 
for me, because it was an expensive undertaking, 
and the expense would be lost; for Philadelphia 2705 
was a sinking place, the people already half bank- 
rupts, or near being so; all appearances to the 
contrary, such as new buildings and the rise of 
rents, being to his certain knowledge fallacious; 
for they were, in fact, among the things that would 2710 
soon ruin us. And he gave me such a detail of 



112 



Benjamin Franklin 



misfortunes now existing, or that were soon to exist, 
that he left me half melancholy. Had I known 
him before I engaged in this business, probably 

2715 1 never should have done it. This man continued 
to live in this decaying place, and to declaim in 
the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a 
house there, because all was going to destruction; 
and at last I had the pleasure of seeing him give 

2720 five times as much for one as he might have 
bought it for when he first began his croaking. 

I should have mentioned before, that, in the 
autumn of the preceding year, I had formed 
most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club 

2725 of mutual improvement, which we called the 
Junto; we met on Friday evenings. The rules 
that I drew up required that every member, in 
his turn, should produce one or more queries on 
any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Phi- 

27*olosophy, to be discussed by the company; and 
once in three months produce and read an essay 
of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. 
Our debates were to be under the direction of a 
president, and to be conducted in the sincere 

2735 spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for 
dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent 
warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opin- 
ions, or direct contradiction, were after some 
time made contraband, and prohibited under 

2740 small pecuniary penalties. 



Benjamin Franklin 



113 



The first members were Joseph Breintnal, a 
copier of deeds for the scriveners, a good-natured, 
friendly, middle-aged man, a great lover of 
poetry, reading all he could meet with, and 
writing some that was tolerable; very ingenious 2745 
in many little knicknackeries, and of sensible 
conversation. 

Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, 
great in his way, and afterward inventor of what 
is now called Hadley's Quadrant. But he knew 2750 
little out of his way, and was not a pleasing 
companion; as, like most great mathematicians 
I have met with, he expected universal precision 
in every thing said, or was for ever denying or 
distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of 2755 
all conversation. He soon left us. 

Nicholas Scull, a surveyor, afterward surveyor- 
general, who loved books, and sometimes made 
a few verses. 

William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but, loving 2760 
reading, had acquired a considerable share of 
mathematics, which he first studied with a view 
to astrology, that he afterwards laughed at. He 
also became surveyor-general. 

William Maugridge, a joiner, a most exquisite 2765 
mechanic, and a solid, sensible man. 

Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George 
Webb I have characterized before. 

Robert Grace, a young gentleman of some 



U4 



Benjamin Franklin 



ww fortune, generous, lively, and witty; a lover of 
punning and of his friends. 

And William Coleman, then a merchant's clerk, 
about my age, who had the coolest, clearest head, 
the best heart, and the exactest morals of almost 

2775 any man I ever met with. He became af terwards 
a merchant of great note, and one of our provincial 
judges. Our friendship continued without inter- 
ruption to his death, upward of forty years; and 
the club continued almost as long, and was the 

2780 best school of philosophy, morality, and politics 
that then existed in the province; for our queries, 
which were read the week preceding their dis- 
cussion, put us upon reading with attention upon 
the several subjects, that we might speak more 

2785 to the purpose; and here, too, we acquired better 
habits of conversation, every thing being studied 
in our rules which might prevent our disgusting 
each other. From hence the long continuance 
of the club, which I shall have frequent occasion 

2790 to speak further of hereafter. 

But my giving this account of it here is to 
show something of the interest I had, every one 
of these exerting themselves in recommending 
business to us. Breintnal particularly procured 

2795 us from the Quakers the printing forty sheets of 
their history, the rest being to be done by Kei- 
mer; and upon this we worked exceedingly 
hard, for the price was low. It was a folio, pro 



Benjamin Franklin 



«5 



patria size, in pica, with long primer notes. I 
composed of it a sheet a day, and Meredith 2800 
worked it off at press; it was often eleven at night, 
and sometimes later, before I had finished my 
distribution for the next day's work, for the little 
jobs sent in by our other friends now and then 
put us back. But so determined I was to con-2805 
tinue doing a sheet a day of the folio, that one 
night, when, having imposed my forms, I thought 
my day's work over, one of them by accident was 
broken, and two pages reduced to pi, I imme- 
diately distributed and composed it over again 2810 
before I went to bed; and this industry, visible 
to our neighbors, began to give us character and 
credit; particularly, I was told, that mention 
being made of the new printing-office at the mer- 
chants' Every-night club, the general opinion 2S15 
was that it must fail, there being already two 
printers in the place, Keimer and Bradford; but 
Dr. Baird (whom you and I saw many years 
after at his native place, St. Andrew's in Scot- 
land) gave a contrary opinion: "For the indus-2820 
try of that Franklin," says he, "is superior to any 
thing I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at 
work when I go home from club, and he is at work 
again before his neighbors are out of bed." This 
struck the rest, and we soon after had offers from 2825 
one of them to supply us with stationery; but 
as yet we did not choose to engage in shop business. 



u6 



Benjamin Franklin 



I mention this industry the more particularly 
and the more freely, though it seems to be talking 

2830 in my own praise, that those of my posterity, 
who shall read it, may know the use of that 
virtue, when they see its effects in my favor 
throughout this relation. 

George Webb, who had found a female friend 

2S3othat lent him wherewith to purchase his time of 
Keimer, now came to offer himself as a journey- 
man to us. We could not then employ him; 
but I foolishly let him know as a secret that I 
soon intended to begin a newspaper, and might 

2840 then have work for him. My hopes of success, 
as I told him, were founded on this, that the 
then only newspaper, printed by Bradford, was 
a paltry thing, wretchedly managed, no way 
entertaining, and yet was profitable to him; I 

2345 therefore thought a good paper would scarcely 
fail of good encouragement. I requested Webb 
not to mention it ; but he told it to Keimer, who 
immediately, to be beforehand with me, pub- 
lished proposals for printing one himself, on 

2850 which Webb was to be employed. I resented 
this; and, to counteract them, as I could not 
yet begin our paper, I wrote several pieces of 
entertainment for Bradford's paper, under the 
title of the Busy Body, which Breintnal continued 

2855 some months. By this means the attention of 
the public was fixed on that paper, and Keimer's 



Benjamin Franklin 



117 



proposals, which we burlesqued and ridiculed, 
were disregarded. He began his paper, however, 
and, after carrying it on three quarters of a year, 
with at most only ninety subscribers, he offered 2860 
it to me for a trifle ; and I, having been ready some 
time to go on with it, took it in hand directly; 
and it proved in a few years extremely profitable 
to me. 

I perceive that I am apt to speak in the sin- 2865 
gular number, though our partnership still con- 
tinued; the reason may be that, in fact, the 
whole management of the business lay upon me. 
Meredith was no compositor, a poor pressman, 
and seldom sober. My friends lamented my28?o 
connection with him, but I was to make the 
best of it. 

Our first papers made a quite different appear- 
ance from any before in the province; a better 
type, and better printed; but some spirited re- 2875 
marks of my writing, on the dispute then going 
on between Governor Burnet and the Massachu- 
setts Assembly, struck the principal people, occa- 
sioned the paper and the manager of it to be much 
talked of, and in a few weeks brought them all ssso 
to be our subscribers. 

Their example was followed by many, and our 
number went on growing continually. This 
was one of the first good effects of my having 
learned a little to scribble; another was, that the28ss 



ii8 



Benjamin Franklin 



leading men, seeing a newspaper now in the 
hands of one who could also handle a pen, thought 
it convenient to oblige and encourage me. Brad- 
ford still printed the votes, and laws, and other 

2890 public business. He had printed an address of 
the House to the governor, in a coarse, blundering 
manner; we reprinted it elegantly and correctly, 
and sent one to every member. They were 
sensible of the difference: it strengthened the 

2895 hands of our friends in the House, and they voted 
us their printers for the year ensuing. 

Among my friends in the House I must not 
forget Mr. Hamilton, before mentioned, who was 
then returned from England, and had a seat 

2900 in it. He interested himself for me strongly in 
that instance, as he did in many others after- 
ward, continuing his patronage till his death. 

Mr. Vernon, about this time, put me in mind 
of the debt I owed him, but did not press me. 

2905 1 wrote him an ingenuous letter of acknowledg- 
ment, craved his forbearance a little longer, 
which he allowed me, and as soon as I was 
able, I paid the principal with interest, and many 
thanks; so that erratum was in some degree 

29io corrected. 

But now another difficulty came upon me 
which I had never the least reason to expect. 
Mr. Meredith's father, who was to have paid for 
our printing-house, according to the expectations 



Benjamin Franklin 



119 



given me, was able to advance only one hun- 291s 
dred pounds currency, which had been paid; 
and a hundred more was due to the merchant, 
who grew impatient, and sued us all. We gave 
bail, but saw that, if the money could not be 
raised in time, the suit must soon come to a 2920 
judgment and execution, and our hopeful pros- 
pects must, with us, be ruined, as the press and 
letters must be sold for payment, perhaps at 
half price. 

In this distress two true friends, whose kind- 2925 
ness I have never forgotten, nor ever shall 
forget while I can remember any thing, came 
to me separately, unknown to each other, and, 
without any application from me, offering each 
of them to advance me all the money that should 2930 
be necessary to enable me to take the whole 
business upon myself, if that should be practi- 
cable; but they did not like my continuing the 
partnership with Meredith, who, as they said, 
was often seen drunk in the streets, and playing 2935 
at low games in alehouses, much to our discredit. 
These two friends were William Coleman and 
Robert Grace. I told them I could not propose 
a separation while any prospect remained of the 
Merediths* fulfilling their part of our agreement, 2940 
because I thought myself under great obligations 
to them for what they had done, and would do 
if they could; but, if they finally failed in their 



120 



Benjamin Franklin 



performance, and our partnership must be dis- 

2945 solved, I should then think myself at liberty to 
accept the assistance of my friends. 

Thus the matter rested for some time, when I 
said to my partner, " Perhaps your father is 
dissatisfied at the part you have undertaken in 

2950 this affair of ours, and is unwilling to advance 
for you and me what he would for you alone. 
If that is the case, tell me, and I will resign the 
whole to you, and go about my business." 
"No," said he, "my father has really been dis- 

2955 appointed, and is really unable; and I am 
unwilling to distress him farther. I see this is 
a business I am not fit for. I was bred a farmer, 
and it was a folly in me to come to town, and 
put myself, at thirty years of age, an apprentice 

2960 to learn a new trade. Many of our Welsh peo- 
ple are going to settle in North Carolina, where 
land is cheap. I am inclined to go with them, 
and follow my old employment. You may find 
friends to assist you. If you will take the debts 

2965 of the company upon you; return to my father 
the hundred pound he has advanced; pay my 
little personal debts, and give me thirty pounds 
and a new saddle, I will relinquish the partner- 
ship, and leave the whole in your hands." I 

2970 agreed to this proposal; it was drawn up in 
writing, signed, and sealed immediately. I gave 
him what he demanded, and he went soon after 



Benjamin Franklin 



121 



to Carolina, from whence he sent me next year 
two long letters, containing the best account 
that had been given of that country, the climate, 2975 
the soil, husbandry, etc., for in those matters he 
was very judicious. I printed them in the papers, 
and they gave great satisfaction to the public. 

As soon as he was gone, I recurred to my two 
friends; and because I would not give an un-29so 
kind preference to either, I took half of what 
each had offered and I wanted of one, and half 
of the other; paid off the company's debts, and 
went on with the business in my own name, 
advertising that the partnership was dissolved. 2935 
I think this was in or about the year 1729. 

About this time there was a cry among the 
people for more paper money, only fifteen 
thousand pounds being extant in the province, 
and that soon to be sunk. The wealthy inhab-2990 
itants opposed any addition, being against all 
paper currency, from an apprehension that it 
would depreciate, as it had done in New England, 
to the prejudice of all creditors. We had dis- 
cussed this point in our Junto, where I was on 2995 
the side of an addition, being persuaded that the 
first small sum struck in 1723 had done much 
good by increasing the trade, employment, and 
number of inhabitants in the province, since 
I now saw all the old houses inhabited, and 3000 
many new ones building : whereas I remembered 



122 



Benjamin Franklin 



well, that when I first walked about the streets 
of Philadelphia, eating my roll, I saw most of 

the houses in Wal- 
nut-street, between 
Second and Front- 
streets, with bills on 
their doors, "To be 
let 1 ' ; and many like- 
wise in Chestnut- 
street and other 
streets, which made 
me think the inhab- 
itants of the city were deserting it one after 
3015 another. 

Our debates possessed me so fully of the sub- 
ject, that I wrote and printed an anonymous 
pamphlet on it, entitled The Nature and Necessity 
of a Paper Currency. It was well received by 

»o2o the common people in general ; but the rich men 
disliked it, for it increased and strengthened the 
clamor for more money, and they happening to 
have no writers among them that were able to 
answer it, their opposition slackened, and the 

*»5 point was carried by a majority in the House. 
My friends there, who conceived I had been of 
some service, thought fit to reward me by employ- 
ing me in printing the money; a very profitable 
job and a great help to me. This was another 

*>m advantage gained by my being able to write. 




Continental money designed by 
Benjamin Franklin 



Th 



Benjamin Franklin 



123 



The utility of this currency became by time 
and experience so evident as never afterwards 
to be much disputed; so that it grew soon to 
fifty-five thousand pounds, and in 1739 to eighty 
thousand pounds, since which it rose during mm 
war to upwards of three hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds, trade, building, and inhabitants 
all the while increasing, though I now think there 
are limits beyond which the quantity may be 
hurtful. . so*© 

I soon after obtained, through my friend Hamil- 
ton, the printing of the Newcastle paper money, 
another profitable job as I then thought it ; small 
things appearing great to 
those in small circum- 
stances; and these, to me, 
were really great advan- 
tages, as they were great 
encouragements. He pro- 
cured for me, also, the 
printing of the laws and 
votes of that government, 
which continued in my 
hands as long as I followed 

, . Back of Continental currency, 

tne business. showing Franklin's use of 

I now opened a little wining to make counter- 

, f _ . . . fetttng difficult 

stationer s shop. I had in 

it blanks of all sorts, the correctest that ever 
appeared among us, being assisted in that by 




pPm/<i by HALL and SEL-S< 
LERS. 1776 




124 Benjamin Franklin 




From aa old print 

Franklin's old book shop near Christ Churchy Philadelphia 

3080 my friend Breintnal. I had also paper, parch- 
ment, chapmen's books, etc. One Whitemash, a 
compositor I had known in London, an excellent 



Benjamin Franklin 



125 



workman, now came to me, and worked with me 
constantly and diligently ; and I took an appren- 
tice, the son of Aquila Rose. 3065 

I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was 
under for the 
printing-house. 
In order to se- 
cure my credit 
and character 
as a tradesman, 
I took care not 
only to be in 
reality indus- 
trious and fru- 
gal, but to avoid 
all appearances 
to the contrary. 
I dressed plain- 
ly; I was seen 
at no places of 
idle diversion. 
I never went out a fishing or shooting; a book, 
indeed, sometimes debauched me from my work, 3035 
but that was seldom, snug, and gave no scandal ; 
and, to show that I was not above my business, I 
sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at 
the stores through the streets on a wheelbarrow. 
Thus being esteemed an industrious, thriving 3090 
young man, and paying duly for what I bought, 




'/ sometimes brought home the paper I pur- 
chased . . . on a wheelbarrow" 



126 



Benjamin Franklin 



the merchants who imported stationery solicited 
my custom; others proposed supplying me with 
books, and I went on swimmingly. In the mean 

5095 time, Keimer's credit and business declining 
daily, he was at last forced to sell his printing- 
house to satisfy his creditors. He went to Bar- 
badoes, and there lived some years in very poor 
circumstances. 

mm His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had 
instructed while I worked with him, set up in 
his place at Philadelphia, having bought his 
materials. I was at first apprehensive of a 
powerful rival in Harry, as his friends were very 

3io5 able, and had a good deal of interest. I there- 
fore proposed a partnership to him, which he, 
fortunately for me, rejected with scorn. He 
was very proud, dressed like a gentleman, lived 
expensively, took much diversion and pleasure 

*no abroad, ran in debt, and neglected his business; 
upon which, all business left him; and, finding 
nothing to do, he followed Keimer to Barbadoes, 
taking the printing-house with him. There this 
apprentice employed his former master as a 

sua journeyman ; they quarrelled often; Harry went 
continually behindhand, and at length was 
forced to sell his types and return to his coun- 
try work in Pennsylvania. The person that 
bought them employed Keimer to use them, 

3i2o but in a few years he died. 



Benjamin Franklin 



127 



There remained now no competitor with me 
at Philadelphia but the old one, Bradford; who 
was rich and easy, did a little printing now and 
then by straggling hands, but was not very 
anxious about the business. However, as he 3125 
kept the post-office, it was imagined he had 
better opportunities of obtaining news; his paper 
was thought a better distributor of advertise- 
ments than mine, and therefore had many more, 
which was a profitable thing to him, and asm 
disadvantage to me; for, though I did indeed 
receive and send papers by post, yet the public 
opinion was otherwise, for what I did send was 
by bribing the riders, who took them privately, 
Bradford being unkind enough to forbid it, which 3130 
occasioned some resentment on my part; and 
I thought so meanly of him for it, that, when I 
afterward came into his situation, I took care 
never to imitate it. 

I had hitherto continued to board with God- 3140 
frey, who lived in part of my house with his wife 
and children, and had one side of the shop for 
his glazier's business, though he worked little, 
being always absorbed in his mathematics. Mrs. 
Godfrey projected a match for me with a rela-3i4o 
tion's daughter, took opportunities of bringing 
us often together, till a serious courtship on my 
part ensued, the girl being in herself very deserv- 
ing. The old folks encouraged me by continual 



128 



Benjamin Franklin 



3160 invitations to supper, and by leaving us together, 
till at length it was time to explain. Mrs. God- 
frey managed our little treaty. I let her know 
that I expected as much money with their 
daughter as would pay off my remaining debt 

si55 for the printing-house, which I believe was not 
then above a hundred pounds. She brought me 
word they had no such sum to spare ; I said they 
might mortgage their house in the loan-office. 
The answer to this, after some days, was, that 

3160 they did not approve the match; that, on inquiry 
of Bradford, they had been informed the printing 
business was not a profitable one ; the types would 
soon be worn out, and more wanted; that S. Kei- 
mer and D. Harry had failed one after the 

3i65 other, and I should probably soon follow them; 
and, therefore, I was forbidden the house, and 
the daughter shut up. 

Whether this was a rea± cnange of sentiment 
or only artifice, on a supposition of our being 

3170 too far engaged in affection to retract, and there- 
fore that we should steal a marriage, which 
would leave them at liberty to give or withhold 
what they pleased, I know not; but I suspected 
the latter, resented it, and went no more. Mrs. 

si75 Godfrey brought me afterward some more favor- 
able accounts of their disposition, and would 
have drawn me on again; but I declared abso- 
lutely my resolution to have nothing more to 



Benjamin Franklin 



129 



do with that family. This was resented by the 
Godfreys; we differed, and they removed, leaving 3ise 
me the whole house, and I resolved to take no 
more inmates. 

But this affair having turned my thoughts to 
marriage, I looked round me and made over- 
tures of acquaintance in other places; but soon3i85 
found that, the business of a printer being gen- 
erally thought a poor one, I was not to expect 
money with a wife, unless with such a one as I 
should not otherwise think agreeable. A friendly 
correspondence as neighbors and old acquaint- 3190 
ances had continued between me and Mr. Read's 
family, who all had a regard for me from the time 
of my first lodging in their house. I was often 
invited there and consulted in their affairs, 
wherein I sometimes was of service. I pitied 3195 
poor Miss Read's unfortunate situation, who 
was generally dejected, seldom cheerful, and 
avoided company. I considered my giddiness 
and inconstancy when in London as in a great 
degree the cause of her unhappiness, though the 3200 
mother was good enough to think the fault more 
her own than mine, as she had prevented our 
marrying before I went thither, and persuaded 
the other match in my absence. Our mutual 
affection was revived, but there were now great 3205 
objections to our union. The match was indeed 

looked upon as invalid, a preceding wife being 
9 



130 



Benjamin Franklin 



said to be living in England; but this could not 
easily be proved, because of the distance; and, 

3210 though there was a report of his death, it was not 
certain. Then, though it should be true, he had 
left many debts, which his successor might be 
called upon to pay. We ventured, however, 
over all these difficulties, and I took her to 

3215 wife, September ist, 1730. None of the incon- 
veniences happened that we had apprehended; 
she proved a good and faithful helpmate, assisted 
me much by attending shop ; we throve together, 
and have ever mutually endeavored to make 

3220 each other happy. Thus I corrected that great 
erratum as well as I could. 

About this time, our club meeting, not at a 
tavern, but in a little room of Mr. Grace's, set 
apart for that purpose, a proposition was made 

3225 by me, that, since our books were often referred 
to in our disquisitions upon the queries, it might 
be convenient to us to have them altogether 
where we met, that upon occasion they might 
be consulted; and by thus clubbing our books 

3230 to a common library, we should, while we liked to 
keep them together, have each of us the advan- 
tage of using the books of all the other members, 
which would be nearly as beneficial as if each 
owned the whole. It was liked and agreed to, 

3235 and we filled one end of the room with such books 
as we could best spare. The number was not so 



Benjamin Franklin 131 

great as we expected; and though they had been 
of great use, yet some inconveniences occurring 
for want of due care of them, the collection, after 
about a year, was separated, and each took his 3240 
books home again. 

And now I set on foot my first project of a 
public nature, that for a subscription library. I 
drew up the proposals, got them put into form 
by our great scrivener, Brockden, and, by the 3245 
help of my friends in the Junto, procured fifty 
subscribers of forty shillings each to begin with, 
and ten shillings a year for fifty years, the term 
our company was to continue. We afterwards 
obtained a charter, the company being increased 3250 
to one hundred: this was the mother of all the 
North American subscription libraries, now so 
numerous. It is become a great thing itself, and 
continually increasing. These libraries have im- 
proved the general conversation of the Americans, 3255 
made the common tradesmen and farmers as 
intelligent as most gentlemen from other coun- 
tries, and perhaps have contributed in some 
degree to the stand so generally made throughout 
the colonies in defense of their privileges. 3260 

Memo. Thus far was written with the inten- 
tion expressed in the beginning and therefore 
contains several little family anecdotes of no 
importance to others. What follows was writ- 
ten many years after in compliance with the 3265 



132 



Benjamin Franklin 



advice contained in these letters, and accord- 
ingly intended for the public. The affairs of 
the Revolution occasioned the interruption. 
[We omit the letters.] 

o Continuation of the Account of my Life, 
Begun at Passy, near Paris, 1784 

It is some time since I received the above 
letters, but I have been too busy till now to 




Franklin's house at Passy, where part of the "Autobiography" 
was written 

think of complying with the request they con- 
5 tain. It might, too, be much better done if I 
were at home among my papers, which would 
aid my memory, and help to ascertain dates; 
but my return being uncertain, and having just 
now a little leisure, I will endeavor to recollect 
and write what I can; if I live to get home, it 
may there be corrected and improved. 



Benjamin Franklin 



133 



Not having any copy here of what is already 
written, I know not whether an account is given 
of the means I used to establish the Philadelphia 
public library, which, from a small beginning, is 3285 
now become so considerable, though I remember 
to have come down to near the time of that trans- 
action (1730). I will therefore begin here with 
an account of it, which may be struck out if found 
to have been already given. 3290 

At the time I established myself in Pennsyl- 
vania, there was not a good bookseller's shop in 
any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. 
In New York and Philadelphia the printers were 
indeed stationers; they sold only paper, etc., 3295 
almanacs, ballads, and a few common school- 
books. Those who loved reading were obliged 
to send for their books from England; the 
members of the Junto had each a few. We had 
left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired 3300 
a room to hold our club in. I proposed that we 
should all of us bring our books to that room, 
where they would not only be ready to consult 
in our conferences, but become a common bene- 
fit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as 330s 
he wished to read at home. This was accord- 
ingly done, and for some time contented us. 

Finding /the advantage of this little collec- 
tion, I proposed to render the benefit from 
books more common, by commencing a public 3310 



134 Benjamin Franklin 

subscription library. I drew a sketch of the plan 
and rules that would be necessary, and got a 
skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, to 
put the whole in form of articles of agreement 
33i5 to be subscribed, by which each subscriber en- 




From as engraving by W. Birch & Son. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 



Library and Surgeon's Hall in Fifth Street, Philadelphia 

gaged to pay a certain sum down for the first 
purchase of books, and an annual contribution 
for increasing them. So few were the readers 
at that time in Philadelphia, and the majority 
3320 of us so poor, that I was not able, with great 
industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly 
young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this 
purpose forty shillings each, and ten shillings 



Benjamin Franklin 



135 



per annum. On this little fund we began. The 
books were imported; the library was opened 3325 
one day in the week for lending to the sub- 
scribers, on their promissory notes to pay double 
the value if not duly returned. The institution 
soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other 
towns, and in other provinces. The libraries 3330 
were augmented by donations; reading became 
fashionable; and our people, having no public 
amusements to divert their attention from study, 
became better acquainted with books, and in a 
few years were observed by strangers to be better 3335 
instructed and more intelligent than people of 
the same rank generally are in other countries. 

When we were about to sign the above- 
mentioned articles, which were to be binding 
on us, our heirs, etc., for fifty years, Mr. Brock- 3340 
den, the scrivener, said to us, "You are young 
men, but it is scarcely probable that any of you 
will live to see the expiration of the term fixed 
in the instrument." A number of us, however, 
are yet living; but the instrument was after a 3345 
few years rendered null by a charter that incor- 
porated and gave perpetuity to the company. 

The objections and reluctances I met with in 
soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel 
the impropriety of presenting one's self as the 3350 
proposer of any useful project, that might be 
supposed to raise one's reputation in the smallest 



136 Benjamin Franklin 



degree above that of one's neighbors, when one 
has need of their assistance to accomplish that 

3355 project. I therefore put myself as much as I 
could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a 
number of friends, who had requested me to go 
about and propose it to such as they thought 
lovers of reading. In this way my affair went 

3360 on more smoothly, and I ever after practiced it 
on such occasions; and, from my frequent suc- 
cesses, can heartily recommend it. The present 
little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be 
amply repaid. If it remains a while uncertain 

3365 to whom the merit belongs, some one more vain 
than yourself will be encouraged to claim it, and 
then even envy will be disposed to do you justice 
by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring 
them to their right owner. 

3370 This library afforded me the means of improve- 
ment by constant study, for which I set apart 
an hour or two each day, and thus repaired in 
some degree the loss of the learned education my 
father once intended for me. Reading was the 

3375 only amusement I allowed myself. I spent no 
time in taverns, games, or frolics of any kind; 
and my industry in my business continued as 
indefatigable as it was necessary. I was in- 
debted for my printing-house; I had a young 

33so family coming on to be educated, and I had to 
contend with for business two printers, who were 



Benjamin Franklin 137 

established in the place before me. My circum- 
stances, however, grew daily easier. My original 
habits of frugality continuing, and my father 
having, among his instructions to me when a boy, 3335 
frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, "Seest 
thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand 
before kings, he shall not stand before mean 
men/' I from thence considered industry as a 
means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which 3390 
encouraged me, though I did not think that I 
should ever literally stand before kings, which, 
however, has since happened; for I have stood 
before five, and even had the honor of sitting 
down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner. 3395 

We have an English proverb that says, il He 
that would thrive, must ask his wife" It was 
lucky for me that I had one as much disposed to 
industry and frugality as myself. She assisted 
me cheerfully in my business, folding and stitch- 3400 
ing pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old 
linen rags for the paper-makers, etc., etc. We 
kept no idle servants, our table was plain and 
simple, our furniture of the cheapest. For in- 
stance, my breakfast was a long time bread and 3405 
milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a twopenny 
earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But 
mark how luxury will enter families, and make 
a progress, in spite of principle: being called 
one morning to breakfast, I found it in a China 3410 



138 



Benjamin Franklin 



bowl, with a spoon of silver! They had been 
bought for me without my knowledge by my 
wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three- 
and-twenty shillings, for which she had no other 

3*15 excuse or apology to make, but that she thought 
her husband deserved a silver spoon and China 
bowl as well as any of his neighbors. This was 
the first appearance of plate and China in our 
house, which afterward, in a course of years, as 

3420 our wealth increased, augmented gradually to 
several hundred pounds in value. 

I had been religiously educated as a Presbyte- 
rian; and though some of the dogmas of that 
persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, 

^election, reprobation, etc., appeared to me unin- 
telligible, others doubtful, and I early absented 
myself from the public assemblies of the sect, 
Sunday being my studying day, I never was 
without some religious principles. I never 

3i3o doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; 
that he made the world, and governed it by his 
Providence; that the most acceptable service 
of God was the doing of good to man; that our 
souls are immortal; and that all crime will be 

3435 punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or 
hereafter. These I esteemed the essentials of 
every religion; and, being to be found in all the 
religions we had in our country, I respected them 
all, though with different degrees of respect, as 




Franklin's pew in Christ Church, Philadelphia 



140 Benjamin Franklin 

8*40 1 found them more or less mixed with other 
articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, 
promote, or confirm morality, served principally 
to divide us, and make us unfriendly to one an- 
other. This respect to all, with an opinion that 

soothe worst had some good effects, induced me to 
avoid all discourse that might tend to lessen the 
good opinion another might have of his own 
religion ; and as our province increased in people, 
and new places of worship were continually 

3«o wanted, and generally erected by voluntary con- 
tribution, my mite for Ssuch purpose, whatever 
might be the sect, was never refused. 

Though I seldom attended any public worship, I 
had still an opinion of its propriety, and of its 

S455 utility when rightly conducted, and I regularly 
paid my annual subscription for the support of 
the only Presbyterian minister or meeting we 
had in Philadelphia. He used to visit me some- 
times as a friend, and admonish me to attend 

3460 his administrations, and I was now and then 
prevailed on to do so, once for five Sundays 
successively. Had he been in my opinion a good 
preacher, perhaps I might have continued, not- 
withstanding the occasion I had for the Sunday's 

3465 leisure in my course of study; but his discourses 
were chiefly either polemic arguments, or expli- 
cations of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, 
and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and 



Benjamin Franklin 141 

unedifying, since not a single moral principle was 
inculcated or enforced, their aim seeming to be 3470 
rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens. 

At length he took for his text that verse of the 
fourth chapter of Phillippians, "Finally, breth- 
ren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, 
lovely, or of good report, if there be any virtue, or 3475 
any praise, think on these things." And I im- 
agined, in a sermon on such a text, we could not 
miss of having some morality. But he confined 
himself to five points only, as meant by the 
apostle, viz.: 1. Keeping holy the Sabbath day. 34so 

2. Being diligent in reading the holy Scriptures. 

3. Attending duly the public worship. 4. Par- 
taking of the Sacrament. 5. Paying a due respect 
to God's ministers. These might be all good 
things; but, as they were not the kind of good 3435 
things that I expected from that text, I despaired 
of ever meeting with them from any other, was 
disgusted, and attended his preaching no more. 

I had some years before composed a little Liturgy, 
or form of prayer, for my own private use (viz., in 3490 
1728), entitled Articles of Belief and Acts of 
Religion. I returned to the use of this, and 
went no more to the public assemblies. My 
conduct might be blamable, but I leave it, 
without attempting further to excuse it; my 3495 
present purpose being to relate facts, and not to 
make apologies for them. 



142 



Benjamin Franklin 



It was about this time I conceived the bold 
and arduous project of arriving at moral perfec- 

3500 tion. I wished to live without committing any 
fault at any time; I would conquer all that 
either natural inclination, custom, or company 
might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I 
knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see 

3505 why I might not always do the one and avoid 
the other. But I soon found I had undertaken 
a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. 
While my care was employed in guarding 
against one fault, I was often surprised by an- 

ssio other; habit took the advantage of inattention; 
inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. 
I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative 
conviction that it was our interest to be com- 
pletely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our 

35i5 slipping; and that the contrary habits must be 
broken, and good ones acquired and established, 
before we can have any dependence on a steady, 
uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose 
I therefore contrived the following method. 

3520 In the various enumerations of the moral vir- 
tues I had met with in my reading, I found the 
catalogue more or less numerous, as different 
writers included more or fewer ideas under the 
same name. Temperance, for example, was by 

3525 some confined to eating and drinking, while by 
others it was extended to mean the moderating 



Benjamin Franklin 143 

every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or 
passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice 
and ambition. I proposed to myself, for the 
sake of clearness, to use rather more names, 3530 
with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few 
names with more ideas; and I included under 
thirteen names of virtues all that at that time 
occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and 
annexed to each a short precept, which fully 3535 
expressed the extent I gave to its meaning. 

These names of virtues, with their precepts, 
were: 

1. Temperance.) 
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 3540 

2. Silence. 

Speak not but what may benefit others or 
yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 

3. Order. 

Let all your things have their places; let each 3545 
part of your business have its time. 

4. Resolution. 

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform 
without fail what you resolve. 

5. Frugality. 3550 
Make no expense but to do good to others or 

yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 



Benjamin Franklin 



6. Industry. 

Lose no time; be always employed in some- 
3555 thing useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 

7. Sincerity. 

Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and 
justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 

8. Justice. 

3560 Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the 
benefits that are your duty. 

9. Moderation. 
Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so 
much as you think they deserve. 

3565 10. Cleanliness. 

Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or 
habitation. 

11. Tranquillity. 
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents 
3570 common or unavoidable. 

12. Chastity. 

13. Humility 
Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 



My intention being to acquire the habitude of 
3575 all these virtues, I judged it would be well not 
to distract my attention by attempting the whole 



Franklin Pew 




Benjamin Frankun 

Philosopher am.) Patriot 

rs,v;r-- th& Ds*lara?i*n ?r * ' 

0? TnS* .TSC f 





• i or the <by> 



C-r vvILL IN T-E r-i~?C 




r/ze /a6/^ on Franklin's pew in Christ Church 



Benjamin Franklin 



H5 



at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; 
and, when I should be master of that, then to 
proceed to another, and so on, till I should have 
gone through the thirteen; and, as the previous ssso 
acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisi- 
tion of certain others, I arranged them with that 
view, as they stand above. Temperance first, 
as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness 
of head, which is so necessary where constant 3585 
vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained 
against the unremitting attraction of ancient 
habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. 
This being acquired and established, Silence would 
be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowl- 3590 
edge at the same time that I improved in virtue, 
and considering that in conversation it was 
obtained rather by the use of the ears than of the 
tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit 
I was getting into of prattling, punning, and 3595 
joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling 
company, I gave Silence the second place. This 
and the next, Order, I expected would allow me 
more time for attending to my project and 
my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, 3600 
would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain 
all the subsequent virtues ; Frugality and Industry 
freeing me from my remaining debt, and pro- 
ducing affluence and independence, would make 

more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice,*™ 
10 



146 Benjamin Franklin 



etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to 
the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, 
daily examination would be necessary, I con- 
trived the following method for conducting that 

36io examination. 

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page 
for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with 
red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for 
each day of the week, marking each column with 

3615 a letter for the day. I crossed these columns 
with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning 
of each line with the first letter of one of the 
virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, 
I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault 

3620 1 found upon examination to have been committed 
respecting that virtue upon that day. 

I determined to give a week's strict attention 
to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in 
the first week, my great guard was to avoid 

3625 even the least offense against Temperance, leav- 
ing the other virtues to their ordinary chance, 
only marking every evening the faults of the 
day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my 
first line, marked T, clear of spots, I supposed 

3630 the habit of that virtue so much strengthened, 
and its opposite weakened, that I might venture 
extending my attention to include the next, and 
for the following week keep both lines clear of 
spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go 



Benjamin Franklin 147 
Form of the Pages. 



TEMPERANCE. 


EAT NOT TO DULNESS; 
DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION. 




S. 


M. 


T. 


W. 


T. 


F. 


S. 


T. 
















S. 








* 




* 




O. 


** 




* 




* 


* 


* 


R. 






* 






* 




F. 










* 






I. 






* 










S. 
















J. 
















M. 
















C. 
















T. 
















C. 
















H. 

















through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and 3635 
four courses in a year. And like him who, having 
a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate 



148 



Benjamin Franklin 



all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his 
reach and his strength, but works on one of the 

3640 beds at a time, and, having accomplished the first, 
proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, 
the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages 
the progress I made in virtue, by clearing succes- 
sively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by 

86« a number of courses, I should be happy in view- 
ing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily 
examination. 

This my little book had for its motto these 
lines from Addison's Cato: 

3650 "Here will I hold. If there 's a power above us 

(And that there is, all nature cries aloud 
Thro* all her works), He must delight in virtue; 
And that which he delights in must be happy.' 1 

Another from Cicero, 

3655 "O vitas Philosophia dux ! O virtu turn indagatrix expultrixque 
vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti 
immortalitati est anteponendus." 

Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speak- 
ing of wisdom or virtue : 

3660 "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand 
riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
her paths are peace." iii. 16 , 17. 

And conceiving God to be the fountain of 
wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to 
8665 solicit his assistance for obtaining it; to this 
end I formed the following little prayer, which 



Benjamin Franklin 



149 



was prefixed to my tables of examination, for 
daily use: 

"0 powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! 
Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest, 36io 
Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. 
Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in 
my power for thy continual favors to me. 

I used also sometimes a little prayer which I 
took from Thomson's Poems, viz. : 3575 

"Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme! 
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! 
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, 
From every low pursuit; and fill my soul 
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; 3eso 
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss! " 

The precept of Order requiring that every 
part of my business should have its allotted time, 
one page in my little book contained the follow- 
ing scheme of employment for the twenty-four 368.5 
hours of a natural day. 

The Morning. j 5 J Rise, wash, and address 
Question. What good 6 Powerful Goodness! Con- 
shall I do this day? I trive day's business, and 



7 



take the resolution of the 
day; prosecute the pres- 
ent study, and breakfast. 




Noon. 




Read, or overlook my 
accounts, and dine. 



150 



Benjamin Franklin 



5 1 



Work. 



Evening. 
Question. What good | 
have I done to-day? { 



Put things in their 
places. Supper. Music 

> or diversion, or conversa- 
tion. Examination of the 

J day. 



Night. 



j io 1 
ii 

12 
I 

2 i 

i\ 

l 4 ) 



Sleep. 



I entered upon the execution of this plan for 
self-examination, and continued it with occa- 
sional intermissions for some time. I was sur- 

3690 prised to find myself so much fuller of faults 
than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction 
of seeing them diminish. To avoid the trouble 
of renewing now and then my little book, which, 
by scraping out the marks on the paper of old 

3695 faults to make room for new ones in a new 
course, became full of holes, I transferred my 
tables and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memo- 
randum book, on which the lines were drawn 
with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on 

37oo those lines I marked my faults with a black-lead 
pencil, which marks I could easily wipe out with 



Benjamin Franklin 



a wet sponge. After a while I went through 
one course only in a year, and afterward only 
one in several years, till at length I omitted them 
entirely, being employed in voyages and business 3705 
abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that inter- 
fered; but I always carried my little book with 
me. 

My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble; 
and I found that, though it might be practicable 3710 
where a man's business was such as to leave him 
the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman 
printer, for instance, it was not possible to be 
exactly observed by a master, who must mix with 
the world, and often receive people of business 3715 
at their own hours. Order, too, with regard to 
places for things, papers, etc., I found extremely 
difficult to acquire. I had not been early accus- 
tomed to it, and, having an exceeding good 
memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience 3720 
attending want of method. This article, there- 
fore, cost me so much painful attention, and my 
faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little 
progress in amendment, and had such frequent 
relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the 3725 
attempt, and content myself with a faulty char- 
acter in that respect, like the man who, in buying 
an ax of a smith, my neighbor, desired to have 
the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. 
The smith consented to grind it bright for him 3730 



152 



Benjamin Franklin 



if he would turn the wheel; he turned, while the 
smith pressed the broad face of the ax hard and 
heavily on the stone, which made the turning of 
it very fatiguing. The man came every now and 

3735 then from the wheel to see how the work went 
on, and at length would take his ax as it was, 
without farther grinding. "No," said the smith, 
"turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and- 
by; as yet, it is only speckled." "Yes," says 

3740 the man, "but I think I like a speckled ax 
best." And I believe this may have been the 
case with many, who, having, for want of some 
such means as I employed, found the difficulty 
of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in 

3745 other points of vice and virtue, have given up 
the struggle, and concluded that "a speckled ax 
was best" ; for something, that pretended to be 
reason, was every now and then suggesting to 
me that such extreme nicety as I exacted of my- 

3750 self might be a kind of foppeiy in morals, which, 
if it were known, would make me ridiculous ; that 
a perfect character might be attended with the 
inconvenience of being envied and hated; and 
that a benevolent man should allow a few faults 

3755 in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. 

In truth, I found myself incorrigible with 
respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and 
my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want 
of it. But, on the whole, though I never arrived 



Benjamin Franklin 



at the perfection I had been so ambitious of 3700 
obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by 
the endeavor, a better and a happier man than 
I otherwise should have been if I had not at 
tempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing 
by imitating the engraved copies, though they3~&5 
never reach the wished-for excellence of those 
copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and 
is tolerable while it continues fair and legible 

It may be well my posterity should be 
informed that to this little artifice, with the 3770 
blessing of God, their ancestor owed the con- 
stant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, 
in which this is written. What reverses may 
attend the remainder is in the hand of Provi- 
dence; but, if they arrive, the reflection on past 3775 
happiness enjoyed ought to help his bearing 
them with more resignation. To temperance 
he ascribes his long-continued health, and what 
is still left to him of a good constitution; to 
industry and frugality, the early easiness of his 3730 
circumstances and acquisition of his fortune, 
with all that knowledge that enabled him to be a 
useful citizen, and obtained for him some degree 
of reputation among the learned; to sincerity 
and justice, the confidence of his country, and the 3735 
honorable employs it conferred upon him; and 
to the joint influence of the whole mass of the 
virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able 



154 



Benjamin Franklin 



to acquire them, all that evenness of temper, and 

3790 that cheerfulness in conversation, which makes 
his company still sought for, and agreeable even 
to his younger acquaintance. I hope, therefore, 
that some of my descendants may follow the 
example and reap the benefit. 

3795 It will be remarked that, though my scheme 
was not wholly without religion, there was in it 
no mark of any of the distinguishing tenets of any 
particular sect. I had purposely avoided them; 
for, being fully persuaded of the utility and 

38co excellency of my method, and that it might be 
serviceable to people in all religions, and intend- 
ing some time or other to publish it, I would not 
have any thing in it that should prejudice any 
one, of any sect, against it. I purposed writing 

3805 a little comment on each virtue, in which I would 
have shown the advantages of possessing it, and 
the mischiefs attending its opposite vice; and I 
should have called my book The Art of Virtue, 
because it would have shown the means and 

38io manner of obtaining virtue, which would have 
distinguished it from the mere exhortation to be 
good, that does not instruct and indicate the 
means, but is like the apostle's man of verbal 
charity, who only without showing to the naked 

3si5 and hungry how or where they might get clothes 
or victuals, exhorted them to be fed and clothed. — 
James ii. 15, 16. 



Benjamin Franklin 



*55 



But it so happened that my intention of 
writing and publishing this comment was never 
fulfilled. I did, indeed, from time to time, put 3320 
down short hints of the sentiments, reasonings, 
etc., to be made use of in it, some of which I 
have still by me; but the necessary close atten- 
tion to private business in the earlier part of my 
life, and public business since, have occasioned 3325 
my postponing it; for, it being connected in 
my mind with a great and extensive project, that 
required the whole man to execute, and which 
an unforeseen succession of employs prevented 
my attending to, it has hitherto remained un- 383o 
finished. 

In this piece it was my design to explain and 
enforce this doctrine, that vicious actions are 
not hurtful because they are forbidden, but 
forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature 3335 
of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, 
every one's interest to be virtuous who wished 
to be happy even in this world; and I should, 
from this circumstance (there being always in 
the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, 3340 
states, and princes, who have need of honest 
instruments for the management of their affairs, 
and such being so rare), have endeavored to 
convince young persons that no qualities were 
so likely to make a poor man's fortune as those 3845 
of probity and integrity. 



Benjamin Franklin 



My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; 
but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me 
that I was generally thought proud; that my 
SS50 pride showed itself frequently in conversation; 
that I was not content with being in the right 
when discussing any point, but was overbearing, 
and rather insolent, of which he convinced me 




The old Quaker meeting-house in Philadelphia 

by mentioning several instances; I determined 
3835 endeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this 
vice or folly among the rest, and I added Hu- 
mility to my list, giving an extensive meaning 
to the word. 

I cannot boast of much success in acquiring 
3869 the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal 
with regard to the appearance of it. I made it 
a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the 
sentiments of others, and all positive assertion 
of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to 
3865 the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word 



Benjamin Franklin 



157 



or expression in the language that imported a 
fixed opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., 
and I adopted instead of them, / conceive, I 
apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; 
or it so appears to me at present. When another 
asserted something that I thought an error, I 
denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him 
abruptly, and of showing immediately some 
absurdity in his proposition; and in answering 
I began by observing that in certain cases or3s?5 
circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the 
present case there appeared or seemed to me some 
difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of 
this change in my manner; the conversations 
I engaged in went on more pleasantly. The 3330 
modest way in which I proposed my opinions 
procured them a readier reception and less con- 
tradiction; I had less mortification when I was 
found to be in the wrong, and I more easily pre- 
vailed with others to give up their mistakes and 3*35 
join with me when I happened to be in the right. 

And this mode, which I at first put on with 
some violence to natural inclination, became at 
length so easy, and so habitual to me, that per- 
haps for these fifty years past no one has ev§r*«w 
heard a dogmatical expression escape me. And 
to this habit (after my character of integrity) I 
think it principally owing that I had early so 
much weight with my fellow-citizens when I 



158 Benjamin Franklin 

3895 proposed new institutions, or alterations in the 
old, and so much influence in public councils 
when I became a member; for I was but a bad 
speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesi- 
tation in my choice of words, hardly correct in 

3900 language, and yet I generally carried my points. 
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our 
natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. 
Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle 
it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still 

3905 alive, and will every now and then peep out 
and show himself; you will see it, perhaps, often 
in this history; for, even if I could conceive that 
I had completely overcome it, I should probably 
be proud of my humility. 

3910 [Thus far written at Passy, 1784.] 

["i AM NOW ABOUT TO WRITE AT HOME, AUGUST, 
1788, BUT CANNOT HAVE THE HELP EXPECTED 
FROM MY PAPERS, MANY OF THEM BEING LOST 
IN THE WAR. I HAVE, HOWEVER, FOUND THE 
3915 FOLLOWING."] 

Having mentioned a great and extensive project 
which I had conceived, it seems proper that some 
account should be here given of that project and 
its object. Its first rise in my mind appears in the 
3920 following little paper, accidentally preserved, viz. : 

Observations on my reading history, in Library, 
May 19th, 1 73 1. 



Benjamin Franklin 



159 



1 1 That the great affairs of the world, the wars, 
revolutions, etc., are carried on and effected by- 
parties. 3925 

"That the view of these parties is their pres- 
ent general interest, or what they take to be such. 

"That the different views of these different 
parties occasion all confusion. 

"That while a party is carrying on a general 3930 
design, each man has his particular private in- 
terest in view. 

"That as soon as a party has gained its general 
point, each member becomes intent upon his 
particular interest ; which, thwarting others, breaks 3955 
that party into divisions, and occasions more 
confusion. 

"That few in public affairs act from a mere 
view of the good of their country, whatever they 
may pretend; and, though their actings bring 3940 
real good to their country, yet men primarily 
considered that their own and their country's 
interest was united, and did not act from a 
principle of benevolence. 

"That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a 3945 
view to the good of mankind. 

"There seems to me at present to be great 
occasion for raising a United Party for Virtue, 
by forming the virtuous and good men of all 
nations into a regular body, to be governed by 3950 
suitable good and wise rules, which good and 



Benjamin Franklin 



wise men may probably be more unanimous in 
their obedience to, than common people are to 
common laws. 
3955 "I at present think that whoever attempts 
this aright, and is well qualified, cannot fail of 
pleasing God, and of meeting with success. 

"B. F. " 

Revolving this project in my mind, as to be 
39co undertaken hereafter, when my circumstances 
should afford me the necessary leisure, I put 
down from time to time, on pieces of paper, 
such thoughts as occurred to me respecting 
it. Most of these are lost; but I find one pur- 
3965 porting to be the substance of an intended creed, 
containing, as I thought, the essentials of every 
known religion, and being free of every thing 
that might shock the professors of any religion. 
It is expressed in these words, viz. : 
30-0 "That there is one God, who made all things. 
"That he governs the world by his provi- 
dence. 

"That he ought to be worshipped by adora- 
tion, prayer, and thanksgiving. 
S975 "But that the most acceptable service of God 
is doing good to man. 

"That the soul is immortal. 
"And that God will certainly reward virtue 
and punish vice, either here or hereafter." 
3980 My ideas at that time were, that the sect 



Benjamin Franklin 



161 



should be begun and spread at first among 
young and single men only; that each person to 
be initiated should not only declare his assent to 
such creed, but should have exercised himself 
with the thirteen weeks' examination and practice 3935 
of the virtues, as in the before-mentioned model; 
that the existence of such a society should be kept 
a secret, till it was become considerable, to pre- 
vent solicitations for the admission of improper 
persons, but that the members should each of 3990 
them search among his acquaintance for ingenu- 
ous, well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent 
caution, the scheme should be gradually communi- 
cated; that the members should engage to afford 
their advice, assistance, and support to each other 3995 
in promoting one another's interests, business, 
and advancement in life; that, for distinction, we 
should be called The Society of the Free and Easy: 
free, as being, by the general practice and habit 
of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice;**™ 
and particularly by the practice of industry and 
frugality, free from debt, which exposes a man 
to confinement, and a species of slavery to his 
creditors. 

This is as much as I can now recollect of the 4005 

project, except that I communicated it in part 

to two young men, who adopted it with some 

enthusiasm; but my then narrow circumstances, 

and the necessity I was under of sticking close 
11 



l62 



Benjamin Franklin 



4010 to my business, occasioned my postponing the 
further prosecution of it at that time; and my 
multifarious occupations, public and private, 
induced me to continue postponing, so that it has 
been omitted till I have no longer strength or 

4015 activity left sufficient for such an enterprise; 
though I am still of opinion that it was a practi- 
cable scheme, and might have been very useful, by 
forming a great number of good citizens ; and I 
was not discouraged by the seeming magnitude 

4020 of the undertaking, as I have always thought 
that one man of tolerable abilities may work 
great changes, and accomplish great affairs 
among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, 
and, cutting off all amusements or other employ- 

4025 ments that would divert his attention, makes 
the execution of that same plan his sole study 
and business. 

In 1732 I first published my Almanac, under 
the name of Richard Saunders; it was con- 

4030 tinued by me about twenty -five years, commonly 
called Poor Richard's Almanac. I endeavored 
to make it both entertaining and useful, and it 
accordingly came to be in such demand, that I 
reaped considerable profit from it, vending an- 

4035 nually near ten thousand. And observing that 
it was generally read, scarce any neighborhood 
in the province being without it, I considered it 
as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction 



Benjamin Franklin 



163 



among the common people, who bought scarcely 
any other books; I therefore filled all the little «4o 



Poor Richard, 1733, 



A N 



Almanack 

For the Year of Chrift 

1 7 3 3> 

Being the Fitft after I EAP YEAR 

And mates fi-rt the Creation Yeats 

By the Accounr of the E flrrn Ce»*ts 9241 

By the Latin Church, when Q vnt f ©932 

By the Computation of tV ttf 5742 

By the Reman Chronology 5682 

By the Jewijb Rabbies 5494 

Wherein is contained 
The Lonattons, Eclipfcs, Judgment of 

the Weather, Spring Tides, Plants Motions & 
mutual Afpe&s Sun and Moon's Rifmg and Set 
ting. Length of Days, Time of "High Waicr, 
Fairs, Courts, and obfervahte Day* 
Fitted to the Lanr ode oi Fortv Degrees, 

and a Meridian of Five Hours Weft frrw t onion % 
but may without fenfihlc Error ferve all the ad- 
, jaeent Places, even from KewfounelanJ to Sdutb- 
Carolina. 



By RICHARD SAUNDERS, Philcm. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

Printed and fold by B FRANKLtN. at the New 
Printing Office near the Market. 



Title page of first issue of Poor Richard 

spaces that occurred between the remarkable days 
in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly 
such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the 
means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing 



164 



Benjamin Franklin 



mm virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want 
to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those 
proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to stand 
upright. 

These proverbs, which contained the wisdom 

^0 of many ages and nations, I assembled and formed 
into a connected discourse prefixed to the Alma- 
nac of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man 
to the people attending an auction. The bring- 
ing all these scattered counsels thus into a focus 

4055 enabled them to make greater impression. The 
piece, being universally approved, was copied in 
all the newspapers^ of the Continent; reprinted 
in Britain on a broad side, to be stuck up in houses ; 
two translations were made of it in French, and 

♦aw great numbers bought by the clergy and gentry, 
to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners 
and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it discouraged 
useless expense in foreign superfluities, some 
thought it had its share of influence in producing 

4060 that growing plenty of money which was observ- 
able for several years after its publication. 

I considered my newspaper, also, as another 
means of communicating instruction, and in 
that view frequently reprinted in it extracts from 

«7o the Spectator, and other moral writers; and some- 
times published little pieces of my own, which 
had been first composed for reading in our 
Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending 



Benjamin Franklin 



to prove that, whatever might be his parts and 
abilities, a vicious man could not properly be*07s 
called a man of sense; and a discourse on self- 
denial, showing that virtue was not secure till its 
practice became a habitude, and was free from 
the opposition of contrary inclinations. These 
may be found in the papers about the beginning «so 
of 1735- 

In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully 
excluded all libelling and personal abuse, which 
is of late years become so disgraceful to our 
country. Whenever I was solicited to insert ^ 
any thing of that kind, and the writers pleaded, 
as they generally did, the liberty of the press, 
and that a newspaper was like a stage-coach, in 
which any one who would pay had a right to a 
place, my answer was, that I would print the piece ^ 
separately if desired, and the author might have 
as many copies as he pleased to distribute himself, 
but that I would not take upon me to spread his 
detraction; and that, having contracted with 
my subscribers to furnish them with what might 4095 
be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill 
their papers with private altercation, in which 
they had no concern, without doing them manifest 
injustice. Now, many of our printers make no 
scruple of gratifying the malice of individuals by 4100 
false accusations of the fairest characters among 
ourselves, augmenting animosity even to the 



i66 



Benjamin Franklin 



producing of duels; and are, moreover, so indis- 
creet as to print scurrilous reflections on the 

4105 government of neighboring states, and even on 
the conduct of our best national allies, which 
may be attended with the most pernicious con- 
sequences. These things I mention as a caution 
to young printers, and that they may be encour- 

4110 aged not to pollute their presses and disgrace 
their profession by such infamous practices, but 
refuse steadily, as they may see by my example 
that such a course of conduct will not, on the 
whole, be injurious to their interests. 

4H5 In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, where a printer was want- 
ing. I furnished him with a press and letters, on 
an agreement of partnership, by which I was to 
receive one-third of the profits of the business, 

4120 paying one-third of the expense. He was a man 
of learning, and honest but ignorant in matters 
of account; and, though he sometimes made me 
remittances, I could get no account from him, 
nor any satisfactory state of our partnership while 

4125 he lived. On his decease, the business was con- 
tinued by his widow, who, being born and bred 
in Holland, where, as I have been informed, the 
knowledge of accounts makes a part of female 
education, she not only sent me as clear a state 

4130 as she could find of the transactions past, but 
continued to account with the greatest regularity 

( 



Benjamin Franklin 



and exactness every quarter afterwards, and 
managed the business with such success, that she 
not only brought up reputably a family of children, 
but, at the expiration of the term, was able to 4135 
purchase of me the printing-house, and establish 
her son in it. 

I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of 
recommending that branch of education for our 
young females, as likely to be of more use to«*o 
them and their children, in case of widowhood, 
than either music or dancing, by preserving 
them from losses by imposition of crafty men, and 
enabling them to continue, perhaps, a profitable 
mercantile house, with established correspond- 
ence, till a son is grown up fit to undertake and 
go on with it, to the lasting advantage and 
enriching of the family. 

About the year 1734 there arrived among us 
from Ireland a young Presbyterian preacher, «5o 
named Hemphill, who delivered with a good 
voice, and apparently extempore, most excellent 
discourses, which drew together considerable 
numbers of different persuasions, who joined 
in admiring them. Among the rest, I became 4155 
one of his constant hearers, his sermons pleasing 
me, as they had little of the dogmatical kind, 
but inculcated strongly the practice of virtue, 
or what in the religious style are called good 
works. Those, however, of our congregation, *™ 



i68 



Benjamin Franklin 



who considered themselves as orthodox Presby- 
terians, disapproved his doctrine, and were joined 
by most of the old clergy, w r ho arraigned him 
of heterodoxy before the synod, in order to have 
4ieshim silenced. I became his zealous partisan, 
and contributed all I could to raise a party in his 
favor, and we combated for him a while with 
some hopes of success. There was much scrib- 
bling pro and con upon the occasion ; and finding 
4170 that, though an elegant preacher, he was but a 
poor writer, I lent him my pen and wrote for 
him two or three pamphlets, and one piece in the 
Gazette of April, 1735. Those pamphlets, as is 
generally the case with controversial writings, 
4175 though eagerly read at the time, were soon out 
of vogue, and I question whether a single copy of 
them now exists. 

During the contest an unlucky occurrence 
hurt his cause exceedingly. One of our adver- 
4i8osaries having heard him preach a sermon that 
was much admired, thought he had somewhere 
read the sermon before, or at least a part of 
it. On search, he found that part quoted at 
length, in one of the British Reviews, from a dis- 
miss course of Dr. Foster's. This detection gave many 
of our party disgust, who accordingly abandoned 
his cause, and occasioned our more speedy dis- 
comfiture in the synod. I stuck by him, how- 
ever, as I rather approved his giving us good 



Benjamin Franklin 



i6g 




sermons composed by others, than bad ones of 4190 
his own manufacture, though the latter was the 
practice of our common teachers. He after- 
ward acknowledged to me that none of those he 
preached were his 
own; adding, that 
his memory was 
such as enabled him 
to retain and repeat 
any sermon after 

one reading only. Franklin's chess board, chessmen, 
On our defeat, he and chessmen holder 

left us in search elsewhere of better fortune, 
and I quitted the congregation, never joining it 
after, though I continued many years my sub- 
scription for the support of its ministers. 4205 

I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I 
soon made myself so much a master of the 
French as to be able to read the books with ease. 
I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance, 
who was also learning it, used often to tempt 4210 
me to play chess with him. Finding this took up 
too much of the time I had to spare for study, I 
at length refused to play any more, unless on this 
condition, that the victor in every game should 
have a right to impose a task, either in parts of 4215 
the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, 
etc., which tasks the vanquished was to perform 
on honor, before our next meeting. As we played 



I/O 



Benjamin Franklin 



pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that 
4220 language. I afterwards with a little painstaking, 
acquired as much of the Spanish as to read their 
books also. 

I have already mentioned that I had only one 
year's instruction in a Latin school, and that 

4225 when very young, after which I neglected that 
language entirely. But, when I had attained 
an acquaintance with the French, Italian, and 
Spanish, I was surprised to find, on looking over 
a Latin Testament, that I understood so much 

4230 more of that language than I had imagined, which 
encouraged me to apply myself again to the 
study of it, and I met with more success, as 
those preceding languages had greatly smoothed 
my way. 

4235 From these circumstances, I have thought 
that there is some inconsistency in our common 
mode of teaching languages. We are told that 
it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, 
having acquired that, it will be more easy to at- 

4240 tain those modern languages which are derived 
from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, 
in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is 
true that, if you can clamber and get to the top 
of a staircase without using the steps, you will 

4245 more easily gain them in descending ; but certainly, 
if you begin with the lowest you will with more 
ease .ascend to the top; and I would therefore 



Benjamin Franklin 



171 



offer it to the consideration of those who super- 
intend the education of our youth, whether, since 
many of those who begin with the Latin quit the 4250 
same after spending some years without having 
made any great proficiency, and what they have 
learned becomes almost useless, so that their time 
has been lost, it would not have been better to have 
begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, 4255 
etc.; for, though, after spending the same time, 
they should quit the study of languages and 
never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, 
have acquired another tongue or two, that, being 
in modern use, might be serviceable to them in42eo 
common life. 

After ten years' absence from Boston, and 
having become easy in my circumstances, I made 
a journey thither to visit my relations, which 
I could not sooner well afford. In returning, 1 4265 
called at Newport to see my brother, then settled 
there with his printing-house. Our former differ- 
ences were forgotten, and our meeting was very 
cordial and affectionate. He was fast declining 
in his health, and requested of me that, in case of 4270 
his death, which he apprehended not far distant, 
I would take home his son, then but ten years 
of age, and bring him up to the printing business. 
This I accordingly performed, sending him a few 
years to school before I took him into the office. 4275 
His mother carried on the business till he was 



IJ2 



Benjamin Franklin 



grown up, when I assisted him with an assort- 
ment of new types, those of his father being in a 
manner worn out. Thus it was that I made my 

*28o brother ample amends for the service I had de- 
prived him of by leaving him so early. 

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four 
years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common 
way, I long regretted bitterly, and still regret 

4285 that I had not given it to him by inoculation. 
This I mention for the sake of parents who omit 
that operation, on the supposition that they 
should never forgive themselves if a child died 
under it; my example showing that the regret 

4290 may be the same either way, and that, therefore, 
the safer should be chosen. 

Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and 
afforded such satisfaction to the members, that 
several were desirous of introducing their friends, 

4295 which could not well be done without exceeding 
what we had settled as a convenient number, 
viz., twelve. We had from the beginning made 
it a rule to keep our institution a secret, which 
was pretty well observed; the intention was to 

4300 avoid applications of improper persons for ad- 
mittance, some of whom, perhaps, we might find 
it difficult to refuse. I was one of those who 
were against any addition to our number, but, 
instead of it, made in writing a proposal, that 

4305 every member separately should endeavor to form 



Benjamin Franklin 



173 



a subordinate club, with the same rules respecting 
queries, etc., and without informing them of the 
connection with the Junto. The advantages 
proposed were, the improvement of so many more 
young citizens by the use of our institutions ; our 4310 
better acquaintance with the general sentiments 
of the inhabitants on any occasion, as the Junto 
member might propose what queries we should 
desire, and was to report to the Junto what passed 
in his separate club; the promotion of our 4315 
particular interests in business by more extensive 
recommendation, and the increase of our influence 
in public affairs, and our power of doing good by 
spreading through the several clubs the sentiments 
of the Junto. 4320 

The project was approved, and every member 
undertook to form his club, but they did not all 
succeed. Five or six only were completed, 
which were called by different names, as the Vine, 
the Union, the Band, etc. They were useful to 4325 
themselves, and afforded us a good deal of amuse- 
ment, information, and instruction, beside answer- 
ing, in some considerable degree, our views of 
influencing the public opinion on particular occa- 
sions, of which I shall give some instances in course 4330 
of time as they happened. 

My first promotion was my being chosen, in 
1736, clerk of the General Assembly. The 
choice was made that year without opposition; 



Benjamin Franklin 



4335 but the year following, when I was again pro- 
posed (the choice, like that of the members, being 
annual), a new member made a long speech 
against me, in order to favor some other candidate. 
I was, however, chosen, which was the more 

4340 agreeable to me, as, besides the pay for the 
immediate service as clerk, the place gave me a 
better opportunity of keeping up an interest 
among the members, which secured to me the 
business of printing the votes, laws, paper money, 

4345 and other occasional jobs for the public, that, 
on the whole, were very profitable. 

I therefore did not like the opposition of this 
new member, who was a gentleman of fortune 
and education, with talents that were likely to 

4350 give him, in time, great influence in the House, 
which, indeed, afterwards happened. I did not, 
however, aim at gaining his favor by paying 
any servile respect to him, but, after some time, 
took this other method. Having heard that he 

4355 had in his library a certain very scarce and 
curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing 
my desire of perusing that book, and requesting 
he would do me the favor of lending it to me 
for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I 

4360 returned it in about a week with another note, 
expressing strongly my sense of the favor. 

When we next met in the House, he spoke to me 
(which he had never done before), and with great 



Benjamin Franklin 



*75 



civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness 
to serve me on all occasions, so that we became «es 
great friends, and our friendship continued to 
his death. This is another instance of the truth 




Franklin and his daughter Sallie on a journey to inspect 
the post offices 

of an old maxim I had learned, which says, "He 
that has once done you a kindness will be more ready 
to do you another, than he whom you yourself have 4370 
obliged," And it shows how much more profit- 
able it is prudently to remove, than to resent, 
return, and continue inimical proceedings. 

In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor 01 
Virginia, and then postmaster-general, being 4375 
dissatisfied with the conduct of his deputy at 
Philadelphia, respecting some negligence in ren- 
dering, and inexactitude of his accounts, took 
from him the commission and offered it to me. 



1 76 Ben jamin Franklin 

4380 1 accepted it readily, and found it of great 
advantage; for, though the salary was small, it 
facilitated the correspondence that improved my 
newspaper, increased the number demanded, as 
well as the advertisements to be inserted, so that 

4385 it came to afford me a considerable income. My 
old competitor's newspaper declined proportion- 
ably, and I was satisfied without retaliating his 
refusal, while postmaster, to permit my papers 
being carried by the riders. Thus he suffered 

4390 greatly from his neglect in due accounting; and 
I mention it as a lesson to those young men who 
may be employed in managing affairs for others, 
that they should always render accounts, and 
make remittances, with great clearness and 

4395 punctuality . The character of observing such a 
conduct is the most powerful of all recommen- 
dations to new employments and increase of 
business. 

I began now to turn my thoughts a little to 
4400 public affairs, beginning, however, with small 
matters. The city watch was one of the first 
things that I conceived to want regulation. It 
was managed by the constables of the respective 
wards in turn; the constable warned a number 
4405 of housekeepers to attend him for the night. 
Those who chose never to attend, paid him six 
shillings a year to be excused, which was sup- 
posed to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in 



Benjamin Franklin 



177 



reality, much more than was necessary for that 
purpose, and made the constableship a place of 4410 
profit; and the constable, for a little drink, 
often got such ragamuffins about him as a watch, 
that respectable housekeepers did not choose to 
mix with. Walking the rounds, too, was often 
neglected, and most of the nights spent in tippling. 441s 
I thereupon wrote a paper to be read in Junto, 
representing these irregularities, but insisting more 
particularly on the inequality of this six-shilling tax 
of the constables, respecting the circumstances of 
those who paid it, since a poor widow housekeeper, 4420 
all whose property to be guarded by the watch 
did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, 
paid as much as the wealthiest merchant, who had 
thousands of pounds' worth of goods in his stores. 

On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual 4425 
watch, the hiring of proper men to serve con- 
stantly in that business; and as a more equita- 
ble way of supporting the charge, the levying a 
tax that should be proportioned to the property. 
This idea, being approved by the Junto, was 4430 
communicated to the other clubs, but as arising 
in each of them; and though the plan was not 
immediately carried into execution, yet, by pre- 
paring the minds of people for the change, it 
paved the way for the law obtained a few years 4435 
after, when the members of our clubs were grown 

into more influence. 

12 



178 Benjamin Franklin 



About this time I wrote a paper (first to be 
read in Junto, but it was afterward published) 
4440 on the different accidents and carelessnesses by 
which houses were set on fire, with cautions 




Fr:=: Mace's "School History of the United State*" 



Carrying fire from the neighbor's 

against them, and means proposed of avoiding 
them. This was much spoken of as a useful piece, 
and gave rise to a project, which soon followed 
4443 it, of forming a company for the more ready 
extinguishing of fires, and mutual assistance in 
removing and securing of goods when in danger. 
Associates in this scheme were presently found, 



Benjamin Franklin 



179 



amounting to thirty. Our articles of agreement 
obliged every member to keep always in good 4450 
order, and fit for use, a certain number of leather 
buckets, with strong bags and baskets (for pack- 
ing and transporting of goods), which were to be 
brought to every fire; and we agreed to meet 
once a month and spend a social evening together, 4455 
in discoursing and communicating such ideas as 
occurred to us upon the subject of fires, as might 
be useful in our conduct on such occasions. 

The utility of this institution soon appeared, 
and many more desiring to be admitted than^eo 
we thought convenient for one company, they 
were advised to form another, which was accord- 
ingly done; and this went on, one new company 
being formed after another, till they became so 
numerous as to include most of the inhabitants ^5 
who were men of property; and now, at the time 
of my writing this, though upward of fifty years 
since its establishment, that which I first formed, 
called the Union Fire Company, still subsists 
and flourishes, though the first members are all 4470 
deceased but myself and one, who is older by a 
year than I am. The small fines that have been 
paid by members for absence at the monthly 
meetings have been applied to the purchase of 
fire-engines, ladders, fire-hooks, and other useful 
implements for each company, so that I question 
whether there is a city in the world better provided 



i8o 



Benjamin Franklin 



with the means of putting a stop to beginning 
conflagrations; and, in fact, since these instru- 
ctions, the city has never lost by fire more than 
one or two houses at a time, and the flames have 
often been extinguished before the house in which 
they began has been half consumed. 

In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the 
4485 Reverend Mr. Whitefield, who had made him- 
self remarkable there as an itinerant preacher. 
He was at first permitted to preach in some of 
our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike 
to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he 
4490 was obliged to preach in the fields. The multi- 
tudes of all sects and denominations that attended 
his sermons were enormous, and it was matter 
of speculation to me, who was one of the number, 
to observe the extraordinary influence of his ora- 
4495 tory on his hearers, and how much they admired 
and respected him, notwithstanding his common 
abuse of them, by assuring them they were natur- 
ally half beasts and half devils. It was wonderful to 
see the change soon made in the manners of our 
4500 inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indif- 
ferent about religion, it seemed as if all the 
world were growing religious, so that one could 
not walk through the town in an evening without 
hearing psalms sung in different families of 
4505 every street. 

And it being found inconvenient to assemble 



I 

Benjamin Franklin 181 

I Why' 

in the open air, subject to its inclemencies, the 
building of a house to meet in was no sooner 
proposed, and persons appointed to receive con- 
tributions, but sufficient sums were soon received 4510 
to procure the ground and erect the building, 
which was one hundred feet long and seventy 
broad, about the size of Westminster Hall; and 
the work was carried on with such spirit as to 
be finished in a much shorter time than could 4515 
have been expected. Both house and ground 
were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of 
any preacher of any religious persuasion who 
might desire to say something to the people of 
Philadelphia; the design in building not being 4520 
to accommodate any particular sect, but the in- 
habitants in general; so that even if the Mufti 
of Constantinople were to send a missionary to 
preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a 
pulpit at his service. 4525 

Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preach- 
ing all the way through the colonies to Georgia. 
The settlement of that province had lately been 
begun, but, instead of being made with hardy, 
industrious husbandmen, accustomed to labor, 4530 
the only people fit for such an enterprise, it was 
with families of broken shop-keepers and other 
insolvent debtors, many of indolent and idle 
habits, taken out of the jails, who, being set down 
in the woods, unqualified for clearing land, and 4535 



182 



Benjamin Franklin 



unable to endure the hardships of a new settle- 
ment, perished in numbers, leaving many helpless 
children unprovided for. The sight of their miser- 
able situation inspired the benevolent heart of 

Mr. Whitefield with 
the idea of building 
an Orphan House 
there, in which they 
might be supported 
and educated. Re- 
turning northward, 
he preached up this 
charity, and made 
large collections, for 

C«urt«Bj of the Historical So«i«ty of Pennsylvania m _ 

Franklin's punch bowl. The bowl his eloquence had 
is made of china, in imitation a wonderful "POWer 
of a liquor cask ^ 

over the hearts and 
purses of his hearers, of which I myself was an 
instance. 

4555 I did not disapprove of the design, but, as 
Georgia was then destitute of materials and work- 
men, and it was proposed to send them from 
Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would 
have been better to have built the house here, 

4560 and brought the children to it. This I advised, 
but he was resolute in his first project, rejected 
my counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. 
I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, 
in the course of which I perceived he intended to 




Benjamin Franklin 



finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he ^ 
should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket 
a handful of copper money, three or four silver 
dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded 
I began to soften, and concluded to give the cop- 
pers. Another stroke of his oratory made me«7o 
ashamed of that, and determined me to give the 
silver; and he finished so admirably, that I 
emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's 
dish, gold and all. At this sermon there was 
also one of our club, who, being of my sentiments 4575 
respecting the building in Georgia, and suspecting 
a collection might be intended had, by precau 
tion, emptied his pockets before he came from 
home. Towards the conclusion of the discourse, 
however, he felt a strong desire to give, and^so 
applied to a neighbor, who stood near him, to 
borrow some money for the purpose. The appli- 
cation was unfortunately made to. perhaps the 
only man in the company who had the firmness 
not to be affected by the preacher. His answer 4535 
was, "At any other time, Friend Hopkinson, I 
would lend to thee freely; but not now, for thee seems 
to be out of thy right senses." 
1 Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to 
suppose that he would apply these collections 4590 
to his own private emolument; but I, who was 
intimately acquainted with him (being employed 
in printing his Sermons and Journals, etc.), never 



184 



Benjamin Franklin 



had the least suspicion of his integrity, but am 

4595 to this day decidedly of opinion that he was in all 
his conduct a perfectly honest man; and methinks 
my testimony in his favor ought to have the more 
weight, as we had no religious connection. He 
used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conver- 

46oo sion, but never had the satisfaction of believing 
that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere 
civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted 
to his death. 

The following instance will show something 

4605 of the terms on which we stood. Upon one of 
his arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to 
me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but 
knew not where he could lodge when there, 
as he understood his old friend and host, Mr. 

4aioBenezet, was removed to Germantown. My 
answer was, "You know my house; if you can 
make shift with its scanty accommodations, 
you will be most heartily welcome/ 9 He replied, 
that if I made that kind offer for Christ's sake, I 

4615 should not miss of a reward. And I returned, 
"Don't let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ's 
sake, but for your own sake" One of our common 
acquaintance jocosely remarked, that, knowing 
it to be the custom of the saints, when they 

4G20 received any favor, to shift the burden of the 
obligation from off their own shoulders, and place 
it in heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth. 



Benjamin Franklin 



185 



The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in 
London, when he consulted me about his Orphan 
House concern, and his purpose of appropriating ^25 
it to the establishment of a college. 

He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated 
his words and sentences so perfectly, that he might 
be heard and understood at a great distance, 
especially as his auditors, however numerous, ^ 
observed the most exact silence. He preached 
one evening from the top of the Courthouse steps, 
which are in the middle of Market-street, and on 
the west side of Second-street, which crosses it 
at right angles. Both streets were filled with his 4635 
hearers to a considerable distance. Being among 
the hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity 
to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring 
backwards down the street towards the river; 
and I found his voice distinct till I came near^o 
Front-street, when some noise in that street 
obscured it. Imagining then a semicircle, of 
which my distance should be the radius, and that 
it were filled with auditors, to each of whom I 
allowed two square feet, I computed that he might ^ 
well be heard by more than thirty thousand. 
This reconciled me to the newspaper accounts of 
his having preached to twenty-five thousand 
people in the fields, and to the ancient histories 
of generals haranguing whole armies, of which 4650 
I had sometimes doubted. 



Benjamin Franklin 



187 



By hearing him often, I came to distinguish 
easily between sermons newly composed, and 
those which he had often preached in the course 
of his travels. His delivery of the latter was 4655 
so improved by frequent repetitions that every 
accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, 
was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, 
without being interested in the subject, one could 
not help being pleased with the discourse; a^eo 
pleasure of much the same kind with that received 
from an excellent piece of music. This is an 
advantage itinerant preachers have over those 
who are stationary, as the latter cannot well im- 
prove their delivery of a sermon by so many 4665 
rehearsals. 

His writing and printing from time to time 
gave great advantage to his enemies; unguarded 
expressions, and even erroneous opinions, de- 
livered in preaching, might have been after- *67o 
wards explained or qualified by supposing others 
that might have accompanied them, or they 
might have been denied; but liter a scripta manet. 
Critics attacked his writings violently, and with 
so much appearance of reason as to diminish the «75 
number of his votaries and prevent their increase ; 
so that I am of opinion if he had never written 
anything, he would have left behind him a much 
more numerous and important sect, and his repu- 
tation might in that case have been still growing, *68o 



i88 



Benjamin Franklin 



even after his death, as there being nothing of 
his writing on which to found a censure and give 
him a lower character, his proselytes would be 
left at liberty to feign for him as great a variety 

4685 of excellences as their enthusiastic admiration 
might wish him to have possessed. 

My business was now continually augment- 
ing, and my circumstances growing daily easier, 
my newspaper having become very profitable, as 

4690 being for a time almost the only one in this 
and the neighboring provinces. I experienced, 
too, the truth of the observation, "that after 
getting the first hundred pound, it is more easy 
to get the second," money itself being of a pro- 

4695 lific nature. 

The partnership at Carolina having succeeded, 
I was encouraged to engage in others, and to 
promote several of my workmen, who had be- 
haved well, by establishing them with printing- 

4700 houses in different colonies, on the same terms 
with that in Carolina. Most of them did well, 
being enabled at the end of our term, six years, 
to purchase the types of me and go on working 
for themselves, by which means several families 

4705 were raised. Partnerships often finish in quar- 
rels; but I was happy in this, that mine were 
all carried on and ended amicably, owing, I 
think, a good deal to the precaution of having 
very explicitly settled, in our articles, every 

% 



Benjamin Franklin i8q 

thing to be done by or expected from each^o 
partner, so that there was nothing to dispute, 
which precaution I would therefore recommend 
to all who enter into partnerships; for, what 
ever esteem partners may have for, and confi- 
dence in each other at the time of the contract, 4715 
little jealousies and disgusts may arise, with 
ideas of inequality in the care and burden of the 
business, etc., which are attended often with 
breach of friendship and of the connection, 
perhaps with lawsuits and other disagreeable 4720 
consequences. 

I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be 
satisfied with my being established in Pennsyl- 
vania. There were, however, two things which 
I regretted, there being no provision for defense, 4725 
nor for a complete education of youth; no 
militia, nor any college. I therefore, in 1743, 
drew up a proposal for establishing an acad- 
emy; and at that time, thinking the Reverend 
Mr. Peters, who was out of employ, a fit person 4730 
to superintend such an institution, I communi- 
cated the project to him; but he, having more 
profitable views in the service of the proprietaries, 
which succeeded, declined the undertaking; and, 
not knowing another at that time suitable for ^5 
such a trust, I let the scheme lie a while dormant. 
I succeeded better the next year, 1744, in pro- 
posing and establishing a Philosophical Society. 



igo Benjamin Franklin 

The paper I wrote for that purpose will be found 

4740 among my writings, when collected. 

With respect to defense, Spain having been 
several years at war against Great Britain, and 
being at length joined by France, which brought 
us into great danger; and the labored and long- 

4745 continued endeavor of our governor, Thomas, 
to prevail with our Quaker Assembly to pass a 
militia law, and make other provisions for the 
security of the province, having proved abortive, 
I determined to try what might be done by a 

4750 voluntary association of the people. To promote 
this, I first wrote and published a pamphlet, en- 
titled Plain Truth, in which I stated our defense- 
less situation in strong lights, with the necessity 
of union and discipline for our defense, and 

4755 promised to propose in a few days an association, 
to be generally signed for that purpose. The 
pamphlet had a sudden and surprising effect. I 
was called upon for the instrument of association, 
and having settled the draft of it with a few friends, 

4760 1 appointed a meeting of the citizens in the large 
building before mentioned. The house was pretty 
full; I had prepared a number of printed copies, 
and provided pens and ink dispersed all over the 
room. I harangued them a little on the subject, 

4765- read the paper, and explained it, and then dis- 
tributed the copies, which were eagerly signed, not 
the least objection being made. 



Benjamin Franklin 



191 



When the company separated, and the papers 
were collected, we found above twelve hundred 
hands; and, other copies being dispersed in the 4770 
country, the subscribers amounted at length to 
upward of ten thousand. These all furnished 
themselves as soon as they could with arms, 
formed themselves into companies and regiments, 
chose their own officers, and met every week to 4775 
be instructed in the manual exercise, and other 
parts of military discipline. The women, by 
subscriptions among themselves, provided silk 
colors, which they presented to the companies, 
painted with different devices and mottoes, which *7so 
I supplied. 

The officers of the companies composing the 
Philadelphia regiment, being met, chose me for 
their colonel; but, conceiving myself unfit, I 
declined that station, and recommended Mr. 4735 
Lawrence, a fine person, and man of influence, 
who was accordingly appointed. I then proposed 
a lottery to defray the expense of building a 
battery below the town, and furnishing it with 
cannon. It filled expeditiously, and the battery 4790 
was soon erected, the merlons being framed of logs 
and filled with earth. We bought some old cannon 
from Boston, but, these not being sufficient, we 
wrote to England for more, soliciting, at the same 
time, our proprietaries for some assistance, though 4795 
without much expectation of obtaining it. 



IQ2 



Benjamin Franklin 



Meanwhile, Colonel Lawrence, William Allen, 
Abram Taylor, Esq., and myself were sent to 
New York by the associators, commissioned to 

4soo borrow some cannon of Governor Clinton. He 
at first refused us peremptorily; but at dinner 
with his council, where there was great drink- 
ing of Madeira wine, as the custom of that place 
then was, he softened by degrees, and said he 

4soo would lend us six. After a few more bumpers 
he advanced to ten; and at length he very good- 
naturedly conceded eighteen. They w r ere fine 
cannon, eighteen-pounders, with their carriages, 
which we soon transported and mounted on our 

4$io battery, where the associators kept a nightly 
guard while the war lasted, and among the rest 
I regularly took my turn of duty there as a 
common soldier. 

My activity in these operations was agreeable 

48i5 to the governor and council; they took me into 
confidence, and I was consulted by them in every 
measure wherein their concurrence was thought 
useful to the association. Calling in the aid of 
religion, I proposed to them the proclaiming a 

4820 fast, to promote reformation, and implore the 
blessing of Heaven on our undertaking. They 
embraced the motion; but, as it was the first 
fast ever thought of in the province, the secre- 
tary had no precedent from which to draw the 

4825 proclamation. My education in New England, 



Benjamin Franklin 



where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here 
of some advantage: I drew it in the accustomed 
style; it was translated into German, printed in 
both languages, and divulged through the prov- 
ince. This gave the clergy of the different sects «3o 
an opportunity of influencing their congregations 
to join in the association, and it would probably 
have been general among all but Quakers if the 
peace had not soon intervened. 

It was thought by some of my friends that, «35 
by my activity in these affairs, I should offend 
that sect, and thereby lose my interest in the 
Assembly of the province, where they formed a 
great majority. A young gentleman who had 
likewise some friends in the House, and wished *mo 
to succeed me as their clerk, acquainted me that 
it was decided to displace me at the next elec- 
tion; and he, therefore, in good will, advised me 
to resign, as more consistent with my honor than 
being turned out. My answer to him was, 4845 
that I had read or heard of some public man who 
made it a rule never to ask for an office, and never 
to refuse one when offered to him. "I approve/ ' 
says I, "of his rule, and will practice it with a 
small addition; I shall never ask, never refuse,^ 
nor ever resign an office. If they will have my 
office of clerk to dispose of to another, they 
shall take it from me. I will not, by giving it 
up, lose my right of some time or other making 

13 



194 



Benjamin Franklin 



4855 reprisals on my adversaries." I heard, however, 
no more of this ; I was chosen again unanimously 
as usual at the next election. Possibly, as they 
disliked my late intimacy with the members of 
council, who had joined the governors in all 
4860 the disputes about military preparations, with 
which the House had long been harassed, they 
might have been pleased if I would voluntarily 
have left them; but they did not care to displace 
me on account merely of my zeal for the associa- 
tes tion, and they could not well give another reason. 
Indeed I had some cause to believe that the 
defense of the country was not disagreeable to 
any of them, provided they were not required to 
assist in it. And I found that a much greater 
4870 number of them than I could have imagined, 
though against offensive war, were clearly for the 
defensive. Many pamphlets pro and con w r ere 
published on the subject, and some by good 
Quakers, in favor of defense, which I believe 
«75 convinced most of their younger people. 

A transaction in our fire company gave me 
some insight into their prevailing sentiments. 
It had been proposed that we should encourage 
the scheme for building a battery by laying out 
«sothe present stock, then about sixty pounds, in 
tickets of the lottery. By our rules, no money 
could be disposed of till the next meeting after 
the proposal. The company consisted of thirty 



Benjamin Franklin iq$ 

members, of which twenty-two were Quakers, 
and eight only of other persuasions. We eighths* 
punctually attended the meeting; but, though we 
thought that some of the Quakers would join us, 
we were by no means sure of 
a majority. Only one Quaker, 
Mr., James Morris, appeared 
to oppose the measure. He 
expressed much sorrow that 
it had ever been proposed, as 
he said Friends were all against 
it, and it would create such 
discord as might break up the 
company. We told him that 
we saw no reason for that; 
we were the minority, and 
if Friends were against the 
measure, and outvoted us, we 
must and should, agreeably 
to the usage of all societies, 
submit. When the hour for business arrived it 
was moved to put the vote; he allowed we mights 
then do it by the rules, but, as he could assure 
us that a number of members intended to be pres- 
ent for the purpose of opposing it, it would be but 
candid to allow a little time for their appearing. 

While we were disputing this, a waiter earner 
to tell me two gentlemen below desired to speak 
with me. I went down, and found they were 




iq6 



Benjamin Franklin 



two of our Quaker members. They told rne 
there were eight of them assembled at a tavern 

«" just by; that they were determined to come and 
vote with us if there should be occasion, which 
they hoped would not be the case, and desired 
we would not call for their assistance if we could 
do without it, as their voting for such a measure 

4920 might embroil them with their elders and friends. 
Being thus secure of a majority, I went up, and 
after a little seeming hesitation, agreed to a delay 
of another hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be 
extremely fair. Not one of his opposing friends 

4925 appeared, at which he expressed great surprise; 
and, at the expiration of the hour, we carried the 
resolution eight to one ; and as, of the twenty-two 
Quakers, eight were ready to vote with us, and 
thirteen, by their absence, manifested that they 

4930 were not inclined to oppose the measure, I after- 
ward estimated the proportion of Quakers sin- 
cerely against defense as one to twenty-one only; 
for these were all regular members of that society, 
and in good reputation among them, and had 

4935 due notice of what was proposed at that meeting. 
The honorable and learned Mr. Logan, who 
had always been of that sect, was one who 
wrote an address to them, declaring his appro- 
bation of defensive war, and supporting his 

4940 opinion by many strong arguments. He put 
into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out in 



Benjamin Franklin igy 

lottery tickets for the battery, with directions 
to apply what prizes might be drawn wholly to 
that service. He told me the following anecdote 
of his old master, William Penn, respecting 4945 
defense. He came over from England, when a 
young man, with that proprietary, and as his 
secretary. It was war-time, and their ship was 
chased by an armed vessel, supposed to be an 
enemy. Their captain prepared for defense; 4950 
but told William Penn, and his company of 
Quakers, that he did not expect their assistance, 
and they might retire into the cabin, which 
they did, except James Logan, who chose to 
stay upon deck, and was quartered to a gun. 4955 
The supposed enemy proved a friend, so there 
was no fighting; but when the secretary went 
down to communicate the intelligence, William 
Penn rebuked him severely for staying upon 
deck, and undertaking to assist in defending 4950 
the vessel, contrary to the principles of Friends, 
especially as it had not been required by the 
captain. This reproof, being before all the com- 
pany, piqued the secretary, who answered, "I 
being thy servant, why did thee not order me ^5 
to come down ? But thee was willing enough 
that I should stay and help to fight the ship when 
thee thought there was danger." 

My being many years in the Assembly, the 
majority of which were constantly Quakers, 4970 



ig8 



Benjamin Franklin 



gave me frequent opportunities of seeing the 
embarrassment given them by their principle 
igainst war, whenever application was made to 
them, by order of the crown, to grant aids for 

4975 military purposes. They were unwilling to offend 
government, on the one hand, by a direct refusal; 
md their friends, the body of the Quakers, on the 
other, by a compliance contrary to their principles ; 
hence a variety of evasions to avoid complying, 

4980 and modes of disguising the compliance when 
it became unavoidable. The common mode at 
last was, to grant money under the phrase of its 
being "for the king's use" and never to inquire 
how it was applied. 

4985 But, if the demand was not directly from the 
crown, that phrase was found not so proper, 
and some other was to be invented. As, when 
powder was wanting (I think it was for the gar- 
rison at Louisburg), and the government of New 

4990 England solicited a grant of some from Pennsyl- 
vania, which was much urged on the House by 
Governor Thomas, they could not grant money 
to buy powder, because that was an ingredient 
of war; but they voted an aid to New England 

4995 of three thousand pounds, to be put into the 
hands of the governor, and appropriated it for 
the purchasing of bread, flour, wheat, or other 
grain. Some of the council, desirous of giving the 
House still further embarrassment, advised the 



Benjamin Franklin 



199 



governor not to accept provision, as not being 5000 
the thing he had demanded; but he replied, "I 
shall take the money, for I understand very well 
their meaning; other grain is gunpowder/' which 
he accordingly bought, and they never objected 

tO it. 5005 

It was in allusion to this fact that, when in 
our fire company we feared the success of our 
proposal in favor of the lottery, and I had said 
to my friend Mr. Syng, one of our members, 
"If we fail, let us move the purchase of a fire- 5010 
engine with the money; the Quakers can have 
no objection to that; and then, if you nominate 
me and I you as a committee for that purpose, 
we will buy a great gun, which is certainly a 
fire-engine." "I see," says he, "you have im-5015 
proved by being so long in the Assembly; your 
equivocal project would be just a match for their 
wheat or other grain" 

These embarrassments that the Quakers suffered 
from having established and published it as one 5020 
of their principles that no kind of war was lawful, 
and which, being once published, they could not 
afterwards, however they might change their 
minds, easily get rid of, reminds me of what I 
think a more prudent conduct in another sect 5025 
among us, that of the Dunkers. I was acquainted 
with one of its founders, Michael Welfare, soon 
after it appeared. He complained to me that they 



200 



Benjamin Franklin 



were grievously calumniated by the zealots of 

5030 other persuasions, and charged with abominable 
principles and practices, to which they were utter 
strangers. I told him this had always been the 
case with new sects, and that, to put a stop to 
such abuse, I imagined it might be well to publish 

5035 the articles of their belief, and the rules of their 
discipline. He said that it had been proposed 
among them, but not agreed to, for this reason: 
"When we \yere first drawn together as a society," 
says he, " it had pleased God to enlighten our minds 

sow so far as to see that some doctrines, which we once 
esteemed truths, were errors ; and that others, which 
we had esteemed errors, were real truths. From 
time to time He has been pleased to afford us 
farther light, and our principles have been improv- 

5045 ing, and our errors diminishing. Now we are not 
sure that we are arrived at the end of this pro- 
gression, and at the perfection of spiritual or 
theological knowledge; and we fear that, if we 
should once print our confession of faith, we should 

5050 feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and 
perhaps be unwilling to receive farther improve- 
ment, and our successors still more so, as con- 
ceiving what we their elders and founders had 
done, to be something sacred, never to be departed 

6055 from." 

This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular 
instance in the history of mankind, every other 



Benjamin Franklin 



201 



sect supposing itself in possession of all truth, 
and that those who differ are so far in the wrong; 
like a man travelling in foggy weather, those at soeo 
some distance before him on the road he sees 
wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind 
him, and also the people in the 
fields on each side, but near him 
all appears clear, though in truth 
he is as much in the fog as any 
of them. To avoid this kind of 
embarrassment, the Quakers have 
of late years been gradually de- 
clining the public service in the 
Assembly and in the magistracy, 
choosing rather to quit their 
power than their principle. 

In order of time, I should have 
mentioned before, that having, 
in 1742, invented an open stove 
for the better warming of rooms, and at the 
same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted 
was warmed in entering, I made a present of the 
model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my early soso 
friends, who, having an iron-furnace, found the 
casting of the plates for these stoves a profitable 
thing, as they were growing in demand. To 
promote that demand, I wrote and published a 
pamphlet, entitled ' 'An Account of the new-invented 5085 
Pennsylvania Fireplaces; wherein their Construction 




From m photo of the model owned 
by the American Philos- 
ophical Society 

Franklin 1 s stove 



202 



Benjamin Franklin 



and Manner of Operation is particularly explained; 
their Advantages above every other Method of warm- 
ing Rooms demonstrated; and all Objections that 

5090 have been raised against the Use of them answered 
and obviated," etc. This pamphlet had a good 
effect. Governor Thomas was so pleased with 
the construction of this stove, as \ described in 
it, that he offered to give me a patent for the 

5095 sole vending of them for a term of years; but I 
declined it, from a principle which has ever 
weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, 
as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions 
of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to 

5ioo serve others by any invention of ours: and this we 
should do freely and generously. 

An ironmonger in London however, assuming 
a good deal of my pamphlet, and working it up 
into his own, and making some small changes 

5105 in the machine, which rather hurt its operation, 
got a patent for it there, and made, as I was 
told, a little fortune by it. And this is not the 
only instance of patents taken out for my inven- 
tions by others, though not always with the 

5iio same success, which I never contested, as having 
no desire of profiting by patents myself, and 
hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in 
very many houses, both of this and the neighbor- 
ing colonies, has been, and is, a great saving of 

5115 wood to the inhabitants. 



Benjamin Franklin 



203 



Peace being concluded, and the association 
business therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts 
again to the affair of establishing an academy. 
The first step I took was to associate in the design 
a number of active friends, of whom the Junto 5120 
furnished a good part ; the next was to write and 
publish a pamphlet, entitled Proposals relating to 
the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This 
I distributed among the principal inhabitants 
gratis ; and as soon as I could suppose their minds 5125 
a little prepared by the perusal of it, I set on foot 
a subscription for opening and supporting an acad- 
emy: it was to be paid in quotas yearly for five 
years; by so dividing it, I judged the subscription 
might be larger, and I believe it was so, amounting 5130 
to no less, if I remember right, than five thousand 
pounds. 

In the introduction to those proposals, I 
stated their publication, not as an act of mine, 
but of some public-spirited gentlemen, avoiding 5135 
as much as I could, according to my usual rule, 
the presenting myself to the public as the author 
of any scheme for their benefit. 

The subscribers, to carry the project into im- 
mediate execution, chose out of their number 5140 
twenty-four trustees, and appointed Mr. Francis, 
then attorney-general, and myself to draw up 
constitutions for the government of the academy ; 
which being done and signed, a house was hired, 



204 



Benjamin Franklin 



5i45 masters engaged, and the schools opened, I think, 
in the same year, 1749. 

The scholars increasing fast, the house was 
soon found too small, and we were looking out 
for a piece of ground, properly situated, with 

5150 intention to build, when Providence threw into 
our way a large house ready built, which, with 
a few alterations, might well serve our purpose. 
This was the building before mentioned, erected 
by the hearers of Mr. Whitefield, and was obtained 

5155 for us in the following manner. 

It is to be noted that the contributions to 
this building being made by people of different 
sects, care was taken in the nomination of trus- 
tees, in whom the building and ground was to 

5160 be vested, that a predominancy should not be 
given to any sect, lest in time that predominancy 
might be a means of appropriating the whole to 
the use of such sect, contrary to the original 
intention. It was therefore that one of each sect 

5i65 was appointed, viz., one Church-of -England man, 
one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, 
etc., those, in case of vacancy by death, were to 
fill it by election from among the contributors. 
The Moravian happened not to please his col- 

5170 leagues, and on his death they resolved to have 
no other of that sect. The difficulty then was, 
how to avoid having two of some other sect, by 
means of the new choice. 



Benjamin Franklin 



205 



Several persons were named, and for that reason 
not agreed to. At length one mentioned me, 5175 
with the observation that I was merely an honest 
man, and of no sect at all, which prevailed with 
them to choose me. The enthusiasm which 
existed when the house was built had long since 
abated, and its trustees had not been able to pro- 5iso 
cure fresh contributions for paying the ground-rent, 
and discharging some other debts the building 
had occasioned, which embarrassed them greatly. 
Being now a member of both sets of trustees, 
that for the building and that for the academy, I siss 
had a good opportunity of negotiating with both, 
and brought them finally to an agreement, by 
which the trustees for the building were to cede 
it to those of the academy, the latter undertaking 
to discharge the debt, to keep for ever open in 5190 
the building a large hall for occasional preachers, 
according to the original intention, and main- 
tain a free-school for the instruction of poor 
children. Writings were accordingly drawn, 
and on paying the debts the trustees of theses 
academy were put in possession of the premises; 
and by dividing the great and lofty hall into 
stories, and different rooms above and below for 
tjie several schools, and purchasing some addi- 
tional ground, the whole was soon made fit for 5200 
our purpose, and the scholars removed into the 
building. The care and trouble of agreeing 



206 



Benjamin Franklin 



with the workmen, purchasing materials, and 
superintending the work, fell upon me; and I 

5205 went through it the more cheerfully, as it did not 
then interfere - with my private business, having 
the year before taken a very able, industrious, 
and honest partner, Mr. David Hall, with whose 
character I was well acquainted, as he had worked 

5210 for me four years. He took off my hands all care 
of the printing-office, paying me punctually my 
share of the profits. This partnership continued 
eighteen years, successfully for us both. 
The trustees of the academy, after a while, 

5215 were incorporated by a charter from the gov- 
ernor; their funds were increased by contributions 
in Britain and grants of land from the proprie- 
taries, to which the Assembly has since made con- 
siderable addition; and thus was established the 

5220 present University of Philadelphia. I have been 
continued one of its trustees from the beginning, 
now near forty years, and have had the very great 
pleasure of seeing a number of the youth who 
have received their education in it, distinguished 

5225 by their improved abilities, serviceable in public 
stations, and ornaments to their country. 

When I disengaged myself, as above men- 
tioned, from private business, I flattered myself, 
that, by the sufficient though moderate fortune 

5230 1 had acquired, I had secured leisure during 
the rest of my life for philosophical studies 



Benjamin Franklin 



207 



and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spence's 
apparatus, who had come from England to lecture 
here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments 
with great alacrity; but the public, now consider- 5235 
ing me as a man of leisure, laid 
hold of me for their purposes, 
every part of our civil govern- 
ment, and almost at the same 
time, imposing some duty upon 
me. The governor put me into 
the commission of the peace ; the 
corporation of the city chose 
me of the common council, and 
soon after an alderman; and the 
citizens at large chose me a 
burgess to represent them in 
Assembly. This latter station 
was the more agreeable to me, 
as I was at length tired with 
sitting there to hear debates, in which, as clerk, 
I could take no part, and which were often 
so unentertaining that I was induced to amuse 
myself with making magic squares or circles, 
or any thing to avoid weariness; and I con- 6255 
ceived my becoming a member would enlarge 
my power of doing good. I would not, however, 
insinuate that my ambition was not flattered 
by all these promotions; it certainly was; for, 
considering my low beginning, they were great 5260 




Franklin's original 
electrical machine 



208 



Benjamin Franklin 



things to me; and they were still more pleas- 
ing, as being so many spontaneous testimonies 
of the public good opinion, and by me entirely 
unsolicited. 

5265 The office of justice of the peace I tried a little, 
by attending a few courts, and sitting on the 
bench to hear causes; but finding that more 
knowledge of the common law than I possessed 
was necessary to act in that station with credit, 

5270 1 gradually withdrew from it, excusing myself 
by my being obliged to attend the higher duties 
of a legislator in the Assembly. My election to 
this trust was repeated every year for ten years, 
without my ever asking any elector for his 

5275 vote, or signifying, either directly or indirectly, 
any desire of being chosen. On taking my seat 
in the House, my son was appointed their clerk. 

The year following, a treaty being to be held 
with the Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent 

5280 a message to the House, proposing that they 
should nominate some of their members, to be 
joined with some members of council, as com- 
missioners for that purpose. The House named 
the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself; and, being 

5285 commissioned, we went to Carlisle, and met the 
Indians accordingly. 

As those people are extremely apt to get 
drunk, and, when so, are very quarrelsome and 
disorderly, we strictly forbade the selling any 




ONE PENNY PLAIN, TWO PENCE COLORED — KEY UN E HALFPENNY. 



A puzzle devised by Franklin 



Benjamin Franklin 



liquor to them; and when they complained of 5290 
this restriction, we told them that if they would 
continue sober during the treaty, we would give 
them plenty of rum when business was over. 
They promised this, and they kept their promise, 
because they could get no liquor, and the treaty 5295 
was conducted very orderly, and concluded to 
mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and 
received the rum; this was in the afternoon; 
they were near one hundred men, women, and 
children, and were lodged in temporary cabins, 5300 
built in the form of a square, just without the 
town. In the evening, hearing a great noise 
among them, the commissioners walked out to 
see what was the matter. We found they had 
made a great bonfire in the middle of the square; 5305 
they were all drunk, men and women, quarreling 
and fighting. Their dark-colored bodies, half 
naked, seen only by the gloomy light of the bon- 
fire, running after and beating one another with 
firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, 5310 
formed a scene the most resembling our ideas 
of hell that could well be imagined; there was 
no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our 
lodging. At midnight a number of them came 
thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of 5315 
which we took no notice. 
The next day, sensible they had misbehaved 

in giving us that disturbance, they sent three of 
14 



210 



Benjamin Franklin 



their old counselors to make their apology. The 
aw orator acknowledged the fault, but laid it upon 
the rum; and then endeavored to excuse the 
rum by saying, "The Great Spirit, who made 
all things, made every thing for some use, and 
whatever use he designed any thing for, that use it 




After &n enf raviif by Birch. Courtety 
of the Hietorical Society of Penngylyania 

The Pennsylvania Hospital 

5325 should always be put to. Now, when he made rum, 
he said, 'Let this be for the Indians to get drunk 
with,' and it must be so." And, indeed, if it be 
the design of Providence to extirpate these sav- 
ages in order to make room for cultivators of the 

5330 earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be 
the appointed means. It has already annihilated 
all the tribes who formerly inhabited the sea- 
coast. 

In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend 
5335 of mine, conceived the idea of establishing a 



Benjamin Franklin 



211 



hospital in Philadelphia (a very beneficent 
design, which has been ascribed to me, but was 
originally his), for the reception and cure of poor 
sick persons, whether inhabitants of the province 
or strangers. He was zealous and active in 5340 
endeavoring to procure subscriptions for it, but 
the proposal being a novelty in America, and at 
first not well understood, he met with but small 
success. 

At length he came to me with the compliment 5345 
that he found there was no such thing as carry- 
ing a public-spirited project through without my 
being concerned in it. "For," says he, "I am 
often asked by those to whom I propose subscrib- 
ing, 'Have you consulted Franklin upon this 5350 
business? And what does he think of it?' And 
when I tell them that I have not (supposing it 
rather out of your line), they do not subscribe, 
but say they will consider of it." I inquired into 
the nature and probable utility of his scheme, 5355 
and receiving from him a very satisfactory expla- 
nation, I not only subscribed to it myself, but 
engaged heartily in the design of procuring sub- 
scriptions from others. Previously, however, to 
the solicitation, I endeavored to prepare the minds 5300 
of the people by writing on the subject in the 
newspapers, which was my usual custom in such 
cases, but which he had omitted. 

The subscriptions afterwards were more free 



212 Benjamin Franklin 

53wand generous; but, beginning to flag, I saw they 
would be insufficient without some assistance 
from the Assembly, and therefore proposed to 
petition for it, which was done. The country 
members did not at first relish the project; they 

5370 objected that it could only be serviceable to the 
city, and therefore the citizens alone should be 
at the expense of it; and they doubted whether 
the citizens themselves generally approved of it. 
My allegation on the contrary, that it met with 

6375 such approbation as to leave no doubt of our being 
able to raise two thousand pounds by voluntary 
donations, they considered as a most extravagant 
supposition, and utterly impossible. 
On this I formed my plan; and, asking leave 

6380 to bring in a bill for incorporating the contribu- 
tors according to the prayer of their petition, and 
granting them a blank sum of money, which 
leave was obtained chiefly on the consideration 
that the House could throw the bill out if they 

5385 did not like it, I drew it so as to make the im- 
portant clause a conditional one, viz., "And 
be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that 
when the said contributors shall have met and 
chosen their managers and treasurer, and shall 

5390 have raised by their contributions a capital stock 

of value (the yearly interest of which is to be 

applied to the accommodating of the sick poor in 
the said hospital free of charge for diet, attendance, 




appear to the satisfaction of the speaker of the mm 
Assembly for the time being, that then it shall 
and may be lawful for the said speaker, and he is 
hereby required, to sign an order on the provincial 
treasurer for the payment of two thousand pounds, 
in two yearly payments, to the treasurer of the 5400 
said hospital, to be applied to the founding, build- 
ing, and finishing of the same." 

This condition carried the bill through; for 
the members, who had opposed the grant, and 
now conceived they might have the credit of 5405 
being charitable without the expense, agreed to 
its passage; and then, in soliciting subscriptions 
among the people, we urged the conditional 
promise of the law as an additional motive to 
give, since every man's donation would be 5410 
doubled; thus the clause worked both ways. 
The subscriptions accordingly soon exceeded 
the requisite sum, and we claimed and received 
the public gift, which enabled us to carry the 
design into execution. A convenient and hand- 5415 
some building was soon erected; the institution 
has by constant experience been found useful, 
and flourishes to this day; and I do not remember 
any of my political manoeuvres, the success of 
which gave me at the time more pleasure, or 5420 
wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excused 
myself for having made some use of cunning. 



214 



Benjamin Franklin 



It was about this time that another projector, 
the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, came to me with a 

5425 request that I would assist him in procuring a 
subscription for erecting a new meeting-house. 
It was to be for the use of a congregation he 
had gathered among the Presbyterians, who were 
originally disciples of Mr. Whitefield. Unwilling 

5430 to make myself disagreeable to my fellow-citizens 
by too frequently soliciting their contributions, 
I absolutely refused. He then desired I would 
furnish him with a list of the names of persons 
I knew by experience to be generous and public- 

5435 spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in 
me, after their kind compliance with my solicita- 
tions, to mark them out to be worried by other 
beggars, and therefore refused also to give such a 
list. He then desired I would at least give him 

5440 my advice. "That I will readily do," said I; 
"and, in the first place, I advise you to apply to 
all those whom you know will give something; 
next, to those whom you are uncertain whether 
they will give any thing or not, and show them 

5445 the list of those who have given; and, lastly, 
do not neglect those who you are sure will give 
nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken. ■ 1 
He laughed and thanked me, and said he would 
take my advice. He did so, for he asked of every- 

mo body, and he obtained a much larger sum than 
he expected, with which he erected the capacious 



Benjamin Franklin 215 



and very elegant meeting-house that stands in 
Arch-street. 

Our city, though laid out with a beautiful regu- 
larity, the streets large, straight, and crossing each 5455 
other at right angles, had the disgrace of suffer- 
ing those streets to remain long unpaved, and 
in wet weather the wheels of heavy carriages 
ploughed them into a quagmire, so that it was 
difficult to cross them; and in dry weather the mm 
dust was offensive. I had lived near what was 
called the Jersey Market, and saw with pain the 
inhabitants wading in mud whilst purchasing 
their provisions. A strip of ground down the 
middle of that market was at length paved with 5455 
brick, so that, being once in the market, they 
had^firm footing, but were often over shoes in 
dirt to get there. By talking and writing on the 
subject, I was at length instrumental in getting 
the street paved with stone between the market 5470 
and the bricked foot-pavement, that was on each 
side next the houses. This, for some time, gave 
an easy access to the market dry-shod; but, the 
rest of the street not being paved, whenever a 
carriage came out of the mud upon this pavement, 5475 
it shook off and left its dirt upon it, and it was 
soon covered with mire, which was not removed, 
the city as yet having no scavengers. 

After some inquiry, I found a poor, industrious 
man, who was willing to undertake keeping the 5430 



2l6 



Benjamin Franklin 



pavement clean, by sweeping it twice a week, 
carrying off the dirt from before all the neighbors' 
doors, for the sum of sixpence per month, to be 
paid by each house. I then wrote and printed 

5485 a paper setting forth the advantages to the neigh- 
borhood that might be obtained by this small 
expense; the greater ease in keeping our houses 
clean, so much dirt not being brought in by 
people's feet; the benefit to the shops by more 

6490 custom, etc., etc., as buyers could more easily get 
at them; and by not having, in windy weather, 
the dust blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I 
sent one of these papers to each house, and in a 
day or two went round to see who would subscribe 

6495 an agreement to pay these sixpences; it was 
unanimously signed, and for a time well executed. 
All the inhabitants of the city were delighted with 
the cleanliness of the pavement that surrounded 
the market, it being a convenience to all, and this 

55oo raised a general desire to have all the streets paved, 
and made the people more willing to submit to 
a tax for that purpose. 

After some time I drew a bill for paving the 
city, and brought it into the Assembly. It was 

5505 just before I went to England, in 1757, and did 
not pass till I was gone, and then with an altera- 
tion in the mode of assessment, which I thought 
not for the better, but with an additional pro- 
vision for lighting as well as paving the streets, 



Benjamin Franklin 



217 



which was a great improvement. It was by awio 
private person, the late Mr. John Clifton, his 
giving a sample of the utility of lamps, by placing 
one at his door, that the people were first im- 
pressed with the idea of enlighting all the city. 
The honor of this public benefit has also been 5515 




The armonica. An instrument designed by Franklin as an 
improvement on the musical glasses 

ascribed to me, but it belongs truly to that 
gentleman. I did but follow his example, and 
have only some merit to claim respecting the 
form of our lamps, as differing from the globe 
lamps we were at first supplied with from London. 5520 
Those we found inconvenient in these respects: 
they admitted no air below; the smoke, therefore, 
did not readily go out above, but circulated in the 
globe, lodged on its inside, and soon obstructed 
the light they were intended to afford; giving, W25 



218 



Benjamin Franklin 



besides, the daily trouble of wiping them clean; 
and an accidental stroke on one of them would 
demolish it, and render it totally useless. I there- 
fore suggested the composing them of four flat 

5530 panes, with a long funnel above to draw up the 
smoke, and crevices admitting air below, to facili- 
tate the ascent of the smoke; by this means they 
were kept clean, and did not grow dark in a few 
hours, as the London lamps do, but continued 

5535 bright till morning, and an accidental stroke 
would generally break but a single pane, easily 
repaired. 

I have sometimes wondered that the London- 
ers did not, from the effect holes in the bottom 

5540 of the globe lamps used at Vauxhall have in 
keeping them clean, learn to have such holes in 
their street lamps. But, these holes being made 
for another purpose, viz., to communicate flame 
more suddenly to the wick by a little flax hang- 

5545 ing down through them, the other use, of letting 
in air, seems not to have been thought of ; and 
therefore, after the lamps have been lit a few 
hours, the streets of London are very poorly 
illuminated. 

5550 The mention of these improvements puts me 
in mind of one I proposed, when in London, to 
Dr. Fothergill, who was among the best men I 
have known, and a great promoter of useful 
projects. I had observed that the streets, when 



Benjamin Franklin 21 g 

dry, were never swept, and the light dust carried ssss 
away; but it was suffered to accumulate till 
wet weather reduced it to mud, and then, after 
lying some days so deep on the pavement that 
there was no crossing but in paths kept clean by 
poor people with brooms, it was with great ssso 
labor raked together and thrown up into carts 
open above, the sides of which suffered some 
of the slush at every jolt on the pavement 
to shake out and fall, sometimes to the annoy- 
ance of foot-passengers. The reason given for 5565 
not sweeping the dusty streets was, that the 
dust would fly into the windows of shops and 
houses. 

An accidental occurrence had instructed me 
how much sweeping might be done in a little 5570 
time. I found at my door in Craven-street, one 
morning, a poor woman sweeping my pavement 
with a birch broom; she appeared very pale and 
feeble, as just come out of a fit of sickness. I 
asked who employed her to sweep there; she 5575 
said, " Nobody; but I am very poor and in dis- 
tress, and I sweeps before gentlefolkses doors, 
and hopes they will give me something/ ' I bid 
her sweep the whole street clean, and I would 
give her a shilling; this was at nine o'clock; 5580 
at 12 she came for the shilling. From the slow- 
ness I saw at first in her working, I could scarce 
believe that the work was done so soon, and sent 



220 



Benjamin Franklin 



my servant to examine it, who reported that the 

km whole street was swept perfectly clean, and all 
the dust placed in the gutter, which was in the 
middle; and the next rain washed it quite away, 
so that the pavement and even the kennel were 
perfectly clean. 

5590 I then judged that, if that feeble woman could 
sweep such a street in three hours, a strong, active 
man might have done it in half the time. And 
here let me remark the convenience of having 
but one gutter in such a narrow street, running 

5595 down its middle, instead of two, one on each side, 
near the footway; for where all the rain that falls 
on a street runs from the sides and meets in the 
middle, it forms there a current strong enough to 
wash away all the mud it meets with; but when 

sew divided into two channels, it is often too weak to 
cleanse either, and only makes the mud it finds 
more fluid, so that the wheels of carriages and 
feet of horses throw and dash it upon the foot- 
pavement, which is thereby rendered foul and 

5605 slippery, and sometimes splash it upon those 
who are walking. My proposal, communicated 
to the good doctor, was as follows: 

"For the more effectual cleaning and keeping 
clean the streets of London and Westminster, it 

solo is proposed that the several watchmen be con- 
tracted with to have the dust swept up in dry 
seasons, and the mud raked up at other times, 



Benjamin Franklin 



221 



each in the several streets and lanes of his round; 
that they be furnished with brooms and other 
proper instruments for these purposes, to be kept seis 
at their respective stands, ready to furnish the 
poor people they may employ in the service. 

"That in the dry summer months the dust be 
all swept up into heaps at proper distances, be- 
fore the shops and windows of houses are usually 5020 
opened, when the scavengers, with close-covered 
carts, shall also carry it all away. 

"That the mud, when raked up, be not left in 
heaps to be spread abroad again by the wheels 
of carriages and trampling of horses, but that ^ 
the scavengers be provided with bodies of carts, 
not placed high upon wheels, but low upon sliders, 
with lattice bottoms, which, being covered with 
straw, will retain the mud thrown into them, and 
permit the water to drain from it, whereby it will 5630 
become much lighter, water making the great- 
est part of its weight; these bodies of carts to 
be placed at convenient distances, and the mud 
brought to them in wheel-barrows; they remain- 
ing where placed till the mud is drained, and then 5535 
horses brought to draw them away." 

I have since had doubts of the practicability 
of the latter part of this proposal, on account of 
the narrowness of some streets, and the difficulty 
of placing the draining-sleds so as not to encumber 5940 
too much the passage; but I am still of opinion 



222 



Benjamin Franklin 



that the former, requiring the dust to be swept 
up and carried away before the shops are open, 
is very practicable in summer, when the days are 

5645 long; for, in walking through the Strand and 
Fleet-street one morning at seven o'clock, I 
observed there was not one shop open, though 
it had been daylight and the sun up above three 
hours; the inhabitants of London choosing 

5650 voluntarily to live much by candle-light, and 
sleep by sunshine, and yet often complain, a little 
absurdly, of the duty on candles, and the high 
price of tallow. 

Some may think these trifling matters not 

5655 worth minding or relating; but when they con- 
sider that though dust blown into the eyes of a 
single person, or into a single shop on a windy 
day, is but of small importance, yet the great 
number of the instances in a populous city, and 

5660 its frequent repetitions give it weight and con- 
sequence, perhaps they will not censure very 
severely those who bestow some attention to 
affairs of this seemingly low nature. Human 
felicity is produced not so much by great pieces 

5665 of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little 
advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you 
teach a poor young man to shave himself, and 
keep his razor in order, you may contribute 
more to the happiness of his life than in giving 

5670 him a thousand guineas. The money may be 



Benjamin Franklin 



223 



soon spent, the regret only remaining of having 
foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, 
he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for 
barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, 
offensive breaths, and dull razors; he shaves 5675 
when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily 
the pleasure of its being done with a good instru- 
ment. With these sentiments I have hazarded 
the few preceding pages, hoping they may afford 
hints which some time or other may be useful ^0 
to.a city I love, having lived many years in it very 
happily, and perhaps to some of our towns in 
America. 

Having been for some time employed by the 
postmaster-general of America as his comptroller 
in regulating several offices, and bringing the 
officers to account, I was, upon hisMeath in 1753, 
appointed, jointly with Mr. William Hunter, 
to succeed him, by a commission from the post- 
master-general in England. The American office seoo 
never had hitherto paid any thing to that of Great 
Britain. We were to have six hundred pounds 
a year between us, if we could make that sum 
out of the profits of the office. To do this, a 
variety of improvements were necessary; someseos 
of these were inevitably at first expensive, so that 
in the first four years the office became above nine 
hundred pounds in debt to us. But it soon after 
began to repay us; and before I was displaced by 



224 Benjamin Franklin 

5700 a freak of the ministers, of which I shall speak 
hereafter, we had brought it to yield three times 
as much clear revenue to the crown as the post- 
office of Ireland. Since that imprudent trans- 




rT 7 /■» 77 • » j t rem w old prini 

Harvard College in early days 

action, they have received from it— not one 
5705 farthing ! 

The business of the post-office occasioned my 
taking a journey this year to New England, 
where the College of Cambridge, of their own 
motion, presented me with the degree of Master 
57io of Arts. Yale College, in Connecticut, had be- 
fore made me a similar compliment. Thus, 
without studying in any college, I came to 
partake of their honors. They were conferred 



Benjamin Franklin 225 

in consideration of my improvements and dis- 
coveries in the electric branch of natural phi- 5715 
losophy. 

In 1754, war with France being again appre- 
hended, a congress of commissioners from the 
different colonies was, by an order of the Lords 
of Trade, to be assembled at Albany, there to 5720 
confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations con- 
cerning the means of defending both their 
country and ours. Governor Hamilton, having 
received this order, acquainted the House with 
it, requesting they would furnish proper presents 5725 
for the Indians, to be given on this occasion; 
and naming the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself 
to join Mr. Thomas Penn and Mr. Secretary 
Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania. 
The House approved the nomination, and pro- 5730 
vided the goods for the present, though they did 
not much like treating out of the provinces; and 
we met the other commissioners at Albany about 
the middle of June. 

In our way thither, I projected and drew a 5735 
plan for the union of all the colonies under one 
government, so far as might be necessary for 
defense, and other important general purposes. 
As we passed through New York, I had there 
shown my project to Mr. James Alexander and 5740 
Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowl- 
edge in public affairs, and, being fortified by 

IS 



226 



Benjamin Franklin 



their approbation, I ventured to lay it before the 
Congress. It then appeared that several of the 
5745 commissioners had formed plans of the same 
kind. A previous question was first taken, 



preferred, and, with a few amendments, was 
accordingly reported. 

By this plan the general government was to be 
administered by a president-general, appointed 

57M and supported by the crown, and a grand council 
was to be chosen by the representatives of the 
people of the several colonies, met in their re- 
spective assemblies. The debates upon it in Con- 
gress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian 

5765 business. Many objections and difficulties were 
started, but at length they were all overcome, 
and the plan was unanimously agreed to, and 
copies ordered to be transmitted to the Board 
of Trade and to the assemblies of the several 

•-770 provinces. Its fate was singular: the assemblies 
did not adopt it, as they all thought there was toe 



A union device used by Frank- 
lin in the 11 Pennsylvania 
Gazette." The pieces of the 
snake represent the colonies 




UNITE OR DTE 



whether a union should 
be established, which 
passed in the affirmative 
unanimously. A commit- 
tee was then appointed, 
one member from each 
colony, to consider the 
several plans and report. 
Mine happened to be 



Benjamin Franklin 



227 



much prerogative in it, and in England it was 
judged to have too much of the democratic. The 
Board of Trade therefore did not approve of it, 
nor recommend it for the approbation of his 5775 
majesty; but another scheme was formed, sup- 
posed to answer the same purpose better, whereby 
the governors of the provinces, with some members 
of their respective councils, were to meet and 
order the raising of troops, building of forts, etc., 5750 
and to draw on the treasury of Great Britain for 
the expense, which was afterwards to be refunded 
by an act of Parliament laying a tax on America. 
My plan, with my reason in support of it, is to 
be found among my political papers that are 5735 
printed. 

Being the winter following in Boston, I had 
much conversation with Governor Shirley upon 
both the plans. Part of what passed between 
us on the occasion may also be seen among 5790 
those papers. The different and contrary rea- 
sons of dislike to my plan make me suspect that 
it was really the true medium; and I am still of 
opinion it would have been happy for both sides 
the water if it had been adopted. The colonies, 5795 
so united, would have been sufficiently strong 
to have defended themselves; there would then 
have been no need of troops from England; of 
course, the subsequent pretence for taxing Amer- 
ica, and the bloody contest it occasioned, would «soo 



228 



Benjamin Franklin 



have been avoided. But such mistakes are not 
new: history is full of the errors of states and 
princes. 

"Look round the habitable world, how few 
5805 Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue! " 

Those who govern, having much business on 
their hands, do not generally like to take the 
trouble of considering and carrying into execu- 
tion new projects. The best public measures are 

5sio therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, 
but forced by the occasion? 

The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it 
down to the Assembly, expressed his approba- 
tion of the plan, "as appearing to him to be 

58i5 drawn up with great clearness and strength of 
judgment, and therefore recommended it as well 
worthy of their closest and most serious atten- 
tion.'' The House, however, by the management 
of a certain member, took it up when I happened 

58M to be absent, which I thought not very fair, and 
reprobated it without paying any attention to it 
at all, to my no small mortification 

In my journey to Boston this year, I met at 
New York with our new governor, Mr. Morris, 

5825 just arrived there from England, with whom I 
had been before intimately acquainted. He 
brought a commission to supersede Mr. Hamil- 
ton, who, tired with the disputes his proprietary 
instructions subjected him to, had resigned. Mr. 



Benjamin Franklin 



229 



Morris asked me if I thought he must expect as raw 
uncomfortable an administration. I said, "No; 
you may, on the contrary, have a very comfort- 
able one, if you will only take care not to enter 
into any dispute with the Assembly.' ' "My 
dear friend," says he, pleasantly, "how can you 5835 
advise my avoiding disputes? You know I love 
disputing; it is one of my greatest pleasures; 
however, to show the regard I have for your 
counsel, I promise you I will, if possible, avoid 
them." He had some reason for loving to dis- 584o 
pute, being eloquent, an acute sophister, and, 
therefore, generally successful in argumentative 
conversation. He had been brought up to it 
from a boy, his father, as I have heard, accustom- 
ing his children to dispute with . one another for 584* 
his diversion, while sitting at table after dinner; 
but I think the practice was not wise; for, in the 
course of my observation, these disputing, con- 
tradicting, and confuting people are generally 
unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory ssso 
sometimes, but they never get good will, which 
would be of more use to them. We parted, he 
going to Philadelphia, and I to Boston. 

In returning, I met at New York with the 
votes of the Assembly, by which it appeared that, ^ 
notwithstanding his promise to me, he and the 
House were already in high contention; and it 
was a continual battle between them as long as 



230 



Benjamin Franklin 




he retained the government. I had my share of 
»it; for, as soon as I got back to my seat in the 
Assembly, I was put on every committee for 
answering his speeches and messages, and by 
the committees always desired to make the drafts. 

Our answers, as well as his mes- 
sages, were often tart, and some- 
times indecently abusive; and, as 
he knew I wrote for the Assembly, 
one might have imagined that, when 
we met, we could hardly avoid 
cutting throats; but he was so good- 
natured a man that no personal 
difference between him and me was 
occasioned by the contest, and we 
often dined together. 

One afternoon, in the height 
of this public quarrel, we met in the street. 
" Franklin,' ' says he, "you must go home with 
me and spend the evening; I am to have some 
company that you will like"; and, taking me 
5ssoby the arm, he led me to his house. In gay 
conversation over our wine, after supper, he 
told us, jokingly, that he much admired the 
idea of Sancho Panza, who, when it was pro- 
posed to give him a government, requested it 
5885 might be a government of blacks as then, if he 
could not agree with his people, he might sell 
them. One of his friends, who sat next tc 



Franklin ' s wine- 
glass 



Benjamin Franklin 231 

me, says, "Franklin, why do you continue to 
side with these damned Quakers? Had not you 
better sell them? The proprietor would give you 5390 
a good price/ ' "The governor/ ' says I, "has 
not yet blacked them enough." He, indeed, 
had labored hard to blacken the Assembly 
in all his messages, but they wiped off his 
coloring as fast as he laid it on, and placed it, inssss 
return, thick upon his own face; so that, find- 
ing he was likely to be negrofied himself, he, as 
well as Mr. Hamilton, grew tired of the contest, 
and quitted the government. 

These public quarrels were all at bottom 5900 
owing to the proprietaries, our hereditary gover- 
nors, who, when any expense was to be incurred 
for the defense of their province, with incredible 
meanness instructed their deputies to pass no 
act for levying the necessary taxes, unless 5905 
their vast estates were in the same act expressly 
excused; and they had even taken bonds of 
these deputies to observe such instructions. The 
Assemblies for three years held out against this 
injustice, though constrained to bend at last. 5910 
At length Captain Denny, who was Governor 
Morris's successor, ventured to disobey those 
instructions: how that was brought about I will 
show hereafter. 

But I am got forward too fast with my story: 5915 
there are still some transactions to be mentioned 



232 



Benjamin Franklin 



that happened during the administration of Gover- 
nor Morris. 

War being in a manner commenced with France, 

5920 the government of Massachusetts Bay projected 
an attack upon Crown Point, and sent Mr. Quincy 
to Pennsylvania, and Mr. Pownall, afterward 
Governor Pownall, to New York, to solicit assist- 
ance. As I was in the Assembly, knew its temper, 

5925 and was Mr. Quincy's countryman, he applied to 
me for my influence and assistance. I dictated his 
address to them, which was well received. They 
voted an aid of ten thousand pounds, to be laid 
out in provisions. But the governor refusing his 

5930 assent to their bill (which included this with other 
sums granted for the use of the crown), unless a 
clause were inserted exempting the proprietary 
estate from bearing any part of the tax that 
would be necessary, the Assembly, though very 

5935 desirous of making their grant to New England 
effectual, were at a loss how to accomplish it. 
Mr. Quincy labored hard with the governor to 
obtain his assent, but he was obstinate. 

I then suggested a method of doing the business 

5940 without the governor, by orders on the trustees 
of the Loan Office, which, by law, the Assembly 
had the right of drawing. There was, indeed, 
little or no money at that time in the office, and 
therefore I proposed that the orders should be 

5945 payable in a year, and to bear an interest of five 



Benjamin Franklin 



233 



per cent. With these orders I supposed the pro- 
visions might easily be purchased. The Assembly, 
with very little hesitation, adopted the proposal. 
The orders were immediately printed, and I was 
one of the committee directed to sign and dispose 5950 
of them. The fund for paying them was the inter- 
est of all the paper currency then extant in the 
province upon loan, together with the revenue 
arising from the excise, which being known to be 
more than sufficient, they obtained instant credit, 5955 
and were not only received in payment for the 
provisions, but many moneyed people, who had 
cash lying by them, vested it in those orders, which 
they found advantageous, as they bore interest 
while upon hand, and might on any occasion bes96o 
used as money; so that they were eagerly all 
bought up, and in a few weeks none of them were 
to be seen. Thus this important affair was by my 
means completed. Mr. Quincy returned thanks 
to the Assembly in a handsome memorial, went 5955 
home highly pleased with the success of his 
embassy, and ever after bore for me the most 
cordial and affecting friendship. 

The British government, not choosing to per- 
mit the union of the colonies as proposed at 5970 
Albany, and to trust that union with their de- 
fense, lest they should thereby grow too military, 
and feel their own strength, suspicions and 
jealousies at this time being entertained of them, 



234 



Benjamin i Franklin 



5975 sent over General Braddock with two regiments 
of regular English troops for that purpose. He 
landed at Alexandria, in Virginia, and thence 
marched to Frederictown, in Maryland, where he 
halted for carriages. Our Assembly apprehend- 

59so ing, from some information, that he had con- 
ceived violent prejudices against them, as averse 
to the service, wished me to wait upon him, not 
as from them, but as postmaster-general, under 
the guise of proposing to settle with him the 

5985 mode of conducting with most celerity and cer- 
tainty the dispatches between him and the gov- 
ernors of the several provinces, with whom he 
must necessarily have continual correspondence, 
and of which they proposed to pay the expense. 

5990 My son accompanied me on this journey. 

We found the general at Frederictown, waiting 
impatiently for the return of those he had sent 
through the back parts of Maryland and Virginia 
to collect wagons. I stayed with him several 

5995 days, dined with him daily, and had full oppor- 
tunity of removing all his prejudices, by the 
information of what the Assembly had before 
his arrival actually done, and were still willing 
to do, to facilitate his operations. When I was 

6ooo about to depart, the returns of wagons to be 
obtained were brought in, by which it appeared 
that they amounted only to twenty-five, and 
not all of those were in serviceable condition. 



Benjamin Franklin 



235 



The general and all the officers were surprised, de- 
clared the expedition was then at an end, being coos 
impossible; and exclaimed against the ministers 
for ignorantly landing them in a country destitute 
of the means of conveying o 
their stores, baggage, etc., 
not less than one hundred and 
fifty wagons being necessary. 

I happened to say I thought 
it was pity they had not 
been landed rather in Penn- 
sylvania, as in that country 
almost every farmer had his 
wagon. The general eagerly 
laid hold of my words, and 
said, "Then you, sir, who are 
a man of interest there, can 
probably procure them for us ; 
and I beg you will undertake A British Re & ular 
it" I asked what terms were to be offered the 
owners of the wagons ; and I was desired to put on 
paper the terms that appeared to me necessary. 6025 
This I did, and they were agreed to, and a commis- 
sion and instructions accordingly prepared imme- 
diately. What those terms were will appear in the 
advertisement I published as soon as I arrived at 
Lancaster, which being, from the great and sud- 6030 
den effect it produced, a piece of some curiosity, I 
shall insert it at length, as follows : 




236 Benjamin Franklin 

' 'Advertisement. 

" Lancaster, April 26, 1755. 

6035 " Whereas, one hundred and fifty wagons, 
with four horses to each wagon, and fifteen 
hundred saddle or pack horses, are wanted for 
the service of his majesty's forces now about to 
rendezvous at Will's Creek, and his excellency 

6040 General Braddock having been pleased to em- 
power me to contract for the hire of the same, 
I hereby give notice that I shall attend for that 
purpose at Lancaster from this day to next 
Wednesday evening, and at York from next Thurs- 

6045 day morning till Friday evening, where I shall 
be ready to agree for wagons and teams, or single 
horses, on the following terms, viz.: 1. That 
there shall be paid for each wagon, with four good 
horses and a driver, fifteen shillings per diem; 

6050 and for each able horse with a pack-saddle, or 
other saddle and furniture, two shillings per diem ; 
and for each able horse without a saddle, eighteen 
pence per diem. 2. That the pay commence from 
the time of their joining the forces at Will's Creek, 

6055 which must be on or before the 20th of May en- 
suing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid 
over and above for the time necessary for their 
travelling to Will's Creek and home again after 
their discharge. 3. Each wagon and team, 

6060 and every saddle or pack horse, is to be valued 
by indifferent persons chosen between me and the 



Benjamin Franklin 



237 



owner; and in case of the loss of any wagon, 
team, or other horse in the service, the price ac- 
cording to such valuation is to be allowed and 
paid. 4. Seven days' pay is to be advanced and 
paid in hand by me to the owner of each wagon 
and team, or horse, at the time of contracting, if 
required, and the remainder to be paid by General 
Braddock, or by the paymaster of the army, at 
the time of their discharge, or from time to time, 6070 
as it shall be demanded. 5. No drivers of wagons, 
or persons taking care of the hired horses, are on 
any account to be called upon to do the duty of 
soldiers, or be otherwise employed than in con- 
ducting or taking care of their carriages or horses. 6075 
6. All oats, Indian corn, or other forage that 
wagons or horses bring to the camp, more than 
is necessary for the subsistence of the horses, is 
to be taken for the use of the army, and a reason- 
able price paid for the same. soso 

"Note. — My son, William Franklin, is em- 
powered to enter into like contracts with any 
person in Cumberland county. 

"B. Franklin." 
"To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster, soss 

York, and Cumberland. 
' ' Friends and Countrymen: 

"Being occasionally at the camp at Frederic 
a few days since, I found the general and officers 
extremely exasperated on account of their noteooo 



238 



Benjamin Franklin 



being supplied with horses and carriages, which 
had been expected from this province, as most 
able to furnish them; but, through the dissen- 
sions between our governor and Assembly, 

6095 money had not been provided, nor any steps 
taken for that purpose. 

1 1 It was proposed to send an armed force imme- 
diately into these counties, to seize as many of the 
best carriages and horses as should be wanted, and 

6ioo compel as many persons into the service as would 
be necessary to drive and take care of them. 

"I apprehended that the progress of British 
soldiers through these counties on such an 
occasion, especially considering the temper the}^ 

8io5 are in, and their resentmenc against us, would 
be attended with many and great inconveniences 
to the inhabitants, and therefore more willingly 
took the trouble of trying first what might be 
done by fair and equitable means. The people 

6no of these back counties have lately complained 
to the Assembly that a sufficient currency was 
wanting; you have an opportunity of receiving 
and dividing among you a very considerable sum; 
for, if the service of this expedition should 

ens continue, as it is more than probable it will, for 
one hundred and twenty days, the hire of these 
wagons and horses will amount to upward of 
thirty thousand pounds, which will be paid you 
in silver and gold of the king's money. 



Benjamin Franklin 



239 



"The service will be light and easy, for the««o 
army will scarce march above twelve miles per 
day, and ' the wagons and baggage-horses, as 
they carry those things that are absolutely neces- 
sary to the welfare of the army, must march with 
the army, and no faster; and are, for the army's 6125 
sake, always placed where they can be most secure, 
whether in a march or in a camp. 

4 4 If you are really, as I believe you are, good 
and loyal subjects to his majesty, you may now 
do a most acceptable service, and make it easyeiso 
to yourselves; for three or four of such as can- 
not separately spare from the business of their 
plantations a wagon and four horses and a 
driver, may do it together, one furnishing the 
wagon, another one or two horses, and another ews 
the driver, and divide the pay proportionably 
between you; but if you do not this service to 
your king and country voluntarily, when such 
good pay and reasonable terms are offered to 
you, your loyalty will be strongly suspected, euo 
The king's business must be done; so many 
brave troops, come so far for your defense, must 
not stand idle through your backwardness to do 
what may be reasonably expected from you; 
wagons and horses must be had; violent meas-6145 
ures will probably be used, and you will be left 
to seek for a recompense where you can find it, 
and your case, perhaps, be little pitied or regarded. 



240 



Benjamin Franklin 



"I have no particular interest in this affair, 

6i5o as, except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do 
good, I shall have only my labor for my pains. 
If this method of obtaining the wagons and 
horses is not likely to succeed, I am obliged to 
send word to the general in fourteen days; and 

6155I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar, with 
a body of soldiers, will immediately enter the 
province for the purpose, which I shall be sorry 
to hear, because I am very sincerely and truly 
your friend and well-wisher, 

6i6o "B. Franklin/ 

I received of the general about eight hundred 
pounds, to be disbursed in advance-money to 
the wagon owners, etc.; but that sum being 
insufficient, I advanced upward of two hundred 

6i65 pounds more, and in two weeks the one hundred 
and fifty wagons, with two hundred and fifty- 
nine carrying horses, were on their march for the 
camp. The advertisement promised payment 
according to the valuation, in case any wagon 

6170 or horse be lost. The owners, however, alleging 
they did not know General Braddock, or what 
dependence might be had on his promise, insisted 
on my bond for the performance, which I accord- 
ingly gave them. 

ens While I was at the camp, supping one evening 
with the officers of Colonel Dunbar's regiment, he 
represented to me his concern for the subalterns, 



Benjamin Franklin 



241 



who, he said, were generally not in affluence, 
and could ill afford, in this dear country, to lay 
in the stores that might be necessary in so longeiso 
a march, through a wilderness, where nothing was 
to be purchased. I commiserated their case, and 
resolved to endeavor procuring them some relief. 
I said nothing, however, to him of my intention, 
but wrote the next morning to the committee of eiss 
the Assembly, who had the disposition of some 
public money, warmly recommending the case of 
these officers to their consideration, and proposing 
that a present should be sent them of necessaries 
and refreshments. My son, who had some expe- 6190 
rience of a camp life, and of its wants, drew up a 
list for me, which I inclosed in my letter. The 
committee approved, and used such diligence 
that, conducted by my son, the stores arrived at 
the camp as soon as the wagons. They consisted 6195 
of twenty parcels, each containing 



6 lbs. loaf sugar. 

6 lbs. good Muscovado do. 

1 lb. good green tea. 

1 lb. good bohea do. 

6 lbs. good ground coffee. 

6 lbs. chocolate. 

\ cwt. best white biscuit. 

\ lb. pepper. 

1 quart best white wine 

vinegar. 
16 



1 Gloucester cheese. 

1 keg containing 20 lbs. 

good butter. 

2 doz. old Madeira wine. 6200 
2 gallons Jamaica spirits. 

1 bottle flour of mustard. 

2 well cured hams. 

\ dozen dried tongues. 

6 lbs. rice. 6205 

6 lbs. raisins. 



2^2 



Benjamin Franklin 



These twenty parcels, well packed, were placed 
on as many horses, each parcel, with the horse, 
being intended as a present for one officer. 

62io They were very thankfully received, and the 
kindness acknowledged by letters to me from the 
colonels of both regiments, in the most grateful 
terms. The general, too, was highly satisfied 
with my conduct in procuring him the wagons, 

5215 etc., and readily paid my account of disburse- 
ments, thanking me repeatedly, and requesting 
my farther assistance in sending provisions after 
him. I undertook this also, and was busily em- 
ployed in it till we heard of his defeat, advancing 

6220 for the service of my own money upwards of one 
thousand pounds sterling, of which I sent him an 
account. It came to his hands, luckily for me, 
a few days before the battle, and he returned me 
immediately an order on the paymaster for the 

6225 round sum of one thousand pounds, leaving the 
remainder to the next account. I consider this 
payment as good luck, having never been able to 
obtain that remainder, of which more hereafter. 
This general was, I think, a brave man, and 

6230 might probably have made a figure as a good 
officer in some European war. But he had too 
much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the 
validity of regular troops, and too mean a one of 
both Americans and Indians. George Croghan, 

6235 our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march 



Benjamin Franklin 



243 



with one hundred of those people, who might have 
been of great use to his army as guides, scouts, 
etc., if he had treated them kindly; but he slighted 
and neglected them, and they gradually left him. 
In conversation with him one day, he was«24o 



giving me some account of 
his intended progress. " After 
taking Fort Duquesne," says 
he, "I am to proceed to Niag- 
ara; and, having taken that, 
to Frontenac, if the season will 
allow time; and I suppose it 
will, for Duquesne can hardly 
detain me above three or 




four days; and then I see *ra*Mm s seal 
nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara.' ' 
Having before revolved in my mind the long line 
his army must make in their march by a very 
narrow road, to be cut for them through the woods 
and bushes, and also what I had read of a former 6255 
defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the 
Iroquois country, I had conceived some doubts 
and some fears for the event of the campaign. 
But I ventured only to say, "To be sure, sir, if 
you arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine 626o 
troops, so well provided with artillery, that place, 
not yet completely fortified, and as we hear with 
no very strong garrison, can probably make but 
a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend 



244 



Benjamin Franklin 



6265 of obstruction to your march is from ambuscades 
of Indians, who, by constant practice, are dexter- 
ous in laying and executing them; and the slender 
line, near four miles long, which your army must 
make, may expose it to be attacked by surprise 

6270 in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several 
pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come 
up in time to support each other." 

He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, ' 'These 
savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to 

6275 your raw American militia, but upon the king's 
regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impos- 
sible they should make any impression.' 1 I was 
conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with 
a military man in matters of his profession, and 

6280 said no more. The enemy, however, did not take 
the advantage of his army which I apprehended 
its long line of march exposed it to, but let it 
advance without interruption till within nine 
miles of the place; and then, when more in a body 

6285 (for it had just passed a river, where the front had 
halted till all had come over), and in a more open 
part of the woods than any it had passed, attacked 
its advance guard by a heavy fire from behind 
trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence 

6290 the general had of an enemy's being near him. 
This guard being disordered, the general hurried 
the troops up to their assistance, which was done 
in great confusion, through wagons, baggage, and 



Benjamin Franklin 



245 



cattle; and presently the fire came upon their 
flank: the officers, being on horseback, were more«295 
easily distinguished, picked out as marks, and 
fell very fast; and the soldiers were crowded 
together in a huddle, having or hearing no orders, 
and standing to be shot at till two-thirds of them 
were killed; and then, being seized with a panic, 6300 
the whole fled with precipitation. 

The wagoners took each a horse out of his 
team and scampered; their example was immedi- 
ately followed by others; so that all the wagons, 
provisions, artillery, and stores were left to theesos 
enemy. The general, being wounded, was brought 
off with difficulty; his secretary, Mr. Shirley, 
was killed by his side ; and out of eighty-six officers, 
sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven 
hundred and fourteen men killed out of eleven 6310 
hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked 
men from the whole army; the rest had been 
left behind with Colonel Dunbar, who was to 
follow with the heavier part of the stores, provi- 
sions, and baggage. The fliers, not being pursued, 6315 
arrived at Dunbar's camp, and the panic they 
brought with them instantly seized him and all 
his people; and, though he had now above one 
thousand men, and the enemy who had beaten 
Braddock did not at most exceed four hundred 6320 
Indians and French together, instead of proceed- 
ing, and endeavoring to recover some of the lost 



246 



Benjamin Franklin 



honor, he ordered all the stores, ammunition, etc., 
to be destroyed, that he might have more horses 

8325 to assist his flight towards the settlements, and 
less lumber to remove. He was there met with 
requests from the governors of Virginia, Mary- 
land, and Pennsylvania, that he would post his 
troops on the frontiers, so as to afford some pro- 

633otection to the inhabitants; but he continued his 
hasty march through all the country, not think- 
ing himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, 
where the inhabitants could protect him. This 
whole transaction gave us Americans the first 

8335 suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of 
British regulars had not been well founded. 

In their first march, too, from their landing till 
they got beyond the settlements, they had plun- 
dered and stripped the inhabitants, totally ruining 

63W some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, 
and confining the people if they remonstrated. 
This was enough to put us out of conceit of such 
defenders, if we had really wanted any. How 
different was the conduct of our French friends 

6345 in 1 78 1, who, during a march through the most 
inhabited part of our country from Rhode Island 
to Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned 
not the smallest complaint for the loss of a pig, 
a chicken, or even an apple. 

6350 Captain Orme, who was one of the general's 
aids-de-camp, and, being grievously wounded, 



Benjamin Franklin 



247 



was brought off with him, and continued with 
him to his death, which happened in a few days, 
told me that he was totally silent all the first day, 
and at night only said, "Who would have thoughts 
it?" That he was silent again the following day, 
saying only at last, "We shall better know how to 
deal with them another time 11 ] and died in a few 
minutes after. 

The secretary's papers, with all the general's eaeo 
orders, instructions, and correspondence, falling 
into the enemy's hands, they selected and trans- 
lated into French a number of the articles, which 
they printed, to prove the hostile intentions of 
the British court before the declaration of war. esos 
Among these I saw some letters of the general 
to the ministry, speaking highly of the great serv- 
ice I had rendered the army, and recommending 
me to their notice. David Hume, too, who was 
some years after secretary to Lord Hertford, when 6370 
minister in France, and afterward to General 
Conway, when secretary of state, told me he had 
seen among the papers in that office, letters from 
Braddock highly recommending me. But, the 
expedition having been unfortunate, my service, 6375 
it seems, was not thought of much value, for those 
recommendations were never of any use to me. 

As to rewards from himself, I asked only one, 
which was, that he would give orders to his 
officers not to enlist any more of our bought w«o 



248 



Benjamin Franklin 



servants, and that he would discharge such as 
had been already enlisted. This he readily 
granted, and several were accordingly returned 
to their masters, on my application. Dunbar, 

6385 when the command devolved on him, was not 
so generous. He being at Philadelphia, on his 
retreat, or rather flight, I applied to him for the 
discharge of the servants of three poor farmers 
of Lancaster County that he had enlisted, remind- 

6390 ing him of the late general's orders on that head. 
He promised me that, if the masters would come 
to him at Trenton, where he should be in a few 
days on his march to New York, he would there 
deliver their men to them. They accordingly 

6395 were at the expense and trouble of going to 
Trenton, and there he refused to perform his prom- 
ise, to their great loss and disappointment. 

As soon as the loss of the wagons and horses 
was generally known, all the owners came upon 

woo me for the valuation which I had given bond 
to pay. Their demands gave me a great deal of 
trouble, my acquainting them that the money was 
ready in the paymaster's hands, but that orders 
for paying it must first be obtained from General 

6405 Shirley, and my assuring them that I had applied 
to that general by letter; but, he being at a dis- 
tance, an answer could not soon be received, and 
they must have patience, all this was not sufficient 
to satisfy, and some began to sue me. General 



Benjamin Franklin 249 
<■ 

Shirley at length relieved me from this terrible situ- «4io 
ation by appointing commissioners to examine the 
claims, and ordering payment. They amounted to 
near twenty thousand pound, which to pay would 
have ruined me. 

Before we had the news of this defeat, thesis 
two Doctors Bond came to me with a subscrip- 
tion paper for raising money to defray the expense 
of a grand firework, which it was intended to 
exhibit at a rejoicing on receipt of the news of our 
taking Fort Duquesne. I looked grave, and said 6420 
it would, I thought, be time enough to prepare 
for the rejoicing when we knew we should have 
occasion to rejoice. They seemed surprised that 
I did not immediately comply with their proposal. 
1 ' Why the d — 1!" says one of them, "you surely w& 
don't suppose that the fort will not be taken?" 
"I don't know that it will not be taken, but I 
know that the events of war are subject to great 
uncertainty." I gave them the reasons of my 
doubting; the subscription was dropped, and the 6430 
projectors thereby missed the mortification they 
would have undergone if the firework had been 
prepared. Doctor Bond, on Gome other occasion 
afterward, said that he did not like Franklin's 
forebodings. 6435 

Governor Morris, who had continually wor- 
ried the Assembly with message after message 
before the defeat of Braddock, to beat them into 



2jo Benjamin Franklin 

the making of acts to raise money for the defense 
w*a of the province, without taxing, among others, 
the proprietary estates, and had rejected all their 
bills for not having such an exempting clause, 
now redoubled his attacks with more hope of 

success, the danger and 
necessity being greater. 
The Assembly, how- 
ever, continued firm, 
believing they had jus- 
tice on their side, and 
that it would be giving 
up an essential right if 
they suffered the gov- 
ernor to amend their 
money-bills. In one of 
the last, indeed, which 
was for granting fifty 
thousand pounds, his 
proposed amendment 
was only of a single 
6*60 word. The bill expressed 1 ' that all estates, real 
and personal, were to be taxed, those of the pro- 
prietaries not excepted/ 9 His amendment was, 
for not read only: a small, but very material 
alteration. However, when the news of this dis- 
cos aster reached England, our friends there, whom 
we had taken care to furnish with all the 
Assembly's answers to the governor's messages, 




Fr«m M»ca"g "Storiw of Heroins'' 



Milestone, Lyme, Connecticut 

This milestone, still standing at 
Lyme, marks the distance on a 
road surveyed by Franklin 



Benjamin Franklin 



25* 



raised a clamor against the proprietaries for their 
meanness and injustice in giving their governor 
such instructions; some going so far as to say that, 
by obstructing the defense of their province, they 
forfeited their right to it. They were intimidated 
by this, and sent orders to their rec2iver-general 
to add five thousand pounds of their money 
to whatever sum might be given by the Assembly 6475 
for such purpose. 

This, being notified to the House, was accepted 
in lieu of their share of a general tax, and a 
new bill was formed, with an exempting clause, 
which passed accordingly. By this act I was^o 
appointed one of the commissioners for disposing 
of the money, sixty thousand pounds. I had 
been active in modelling the bill and procuring 
its passage, and had, at the same time, drawn a 
bill for establishing and disciplining a voluntary 6485 
militia, which I carried through the House with- 
out much difficulty, as care was taken in it to leave 
the Quakers at their liberty. To promote the 
association necessary to form the militia, I wrote 
a dialogue, stating and answering all the objec-e^o 
tions I could think of to such a militia, which was 
printed, and had, as I thought, great effect. 

While the several companies in the city and 
country were forming, and learning their exer- 
cise, the governor prevailed with me to takers 
charge of our North-western frontier, which was 



2 $2 



Benjamin Franklin 



infested by the enemy, and provide for the 
defense of the inhabitants by raising troops and 
building a line of forts. I undertook this mili- 

esootary business, though I did not conceive myself 
well qualified for it. He gave me a commission 
with full powers, and a parcel of blank commis- 
sions for officers, to be given to whom I thought 
fit. I had but little difficulty in raising men, 

6505 having soon five hundred and sixty under my com- 
mand. My son, who had in the preceding war 
been an officer in the army raised against Canada, 
was my aid-de-camp, and of great use to me. The 
Indians had burned Gnadenhut, a village settled 

e5io by the Moravians, and massacred the inhabitants; 
but the place was thought a good situation for one 
of the forts. 

In order to march thither, I assembled the 
companies at Bethlehem, the chief establishment 

6515 of those people. I was surprised to find it in so 
good a posture of defense; the destruction of 
Gnadenhut had made them apprehend danger. 
The principal buildings were defended by a stock- 
ade; they had purchased a quantity of arms and 

6520 ammunition from New York, and had even 
placed quantities of small paving stones between 
the windows of their high stone houses, for their 
women to throw down upon the heads of any 
Indians that should attempt to force into them. 

6526 The armed brethren, too, kept watch, and relieved 



254 



Benjamin Franklin 



as methodically as in any garrison town. In 
conversation with the bishop, Spangenberg, I 
mentioned this my surprise; for, knowing they 
had obtained an act of Parliament exempting them 

6530 from military duties in the colonies, I had supposed 
they were conscientiously scrupulous of bearing 
arms. He answered me that it w r as not one of 
their established principles, but that, at the time 
of their obtaining that act, it w r as thought to be 

*5*a principle with many of their people. On this 
occasion, how r ever, they, to their surprise, found it 
adopted by but a few. It seems they were either 
deceived in themselves, or deceived the Parlia- 
ment; but common sense, aided by present dan- 

65io ger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical 
opinions. 

It w r as the beginning of January when we set 
out upon this business of building forts. I sent 
one detachment tow r ard the Minisink, with in- 

85*5 structions to erect one for the security of that 
upper part of the country, and another to the 
lower part, with similar instructions; and I con- 
cluded to go myself with the rest of my force to 
Gnadenhut, where a fort was thought more 

6550 immediately necessary. The Moravians procured 
me five wagons for our tools, stores, baggage, etc. 

Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farm- 
ers, who had been driven from their plantations 
by the Indians, came to me requesting a supply 



Benjamin Franklin 



255 



of firearms, that they might go back and fetch ^ 
off their cattle. I gave them each a gun with 
suitable ammunition. We had not marched 
many miles before it began to rain, and it con- 
tinued raining all day; there were no habitations 
on the road to shelter us, till we arrived near night 
at the house of a German, where, and in his barn, 
we were all huddled together, as wet as water could 
make us. It was well we were not attacked in 
our march, for our arms were of the most ordinary 
sort, and our men could not keep their gun locks ^ 
dry. The Indians are dextrous in contrivances 
for that purpose, which we had not. They 
met that day the eleven poor farmers above 
mentioned, and killed ten of them. The one 
who escaped informed that his and his com- 6570 
panions' guns would not go off, the priming being 
wet with the rain. 

The next day being fair, we continued our 
march, and arrived at the desolated Gnadenhut. 
There was a saw-mill near, round which were 6575 
left several piles of boards, with which we soon 
hutted ourselves; an operation the more neces- 
sary at that inclement season, as we had no tents. 
Our first work was to bury more effectually the 
dead we found there, who had been half interred esso 
by the country people. 

The next morning our fort was planned and 
marked out, the circumference measuring four 



256 Benjamin Franklin 

hundred and fifty-five feet, which would require 
was as many palisades to be made of trees, one with 
another, of a foot diameter each. Our axes, of 
which we had seventy, were immediately set to 
work to cut down trees, and, our men being 




From Halley's "Lif« of Benjamin Franklin" 



Building the fort at Gnadenhut 

dextrous in the use of them, great dispatch was 
6590 made. Seeing the trees fall so fast, I had the 
curiosity to look at my watch when two men 
began to cut at a pine ; in six minutes they had it 
upon the ground, and I found it of fourteen inches 
diameter. Each pine made three palisades of 
C595 eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. While 
these were preparing, our other men dug a trench 
all round, of three feet deep, in which the palisades 
were to be planted; and, our wagons, the bodies 



Benjamin Franklin 



257 



being taken off, and the fore and hind wheels 
separated by taking out the pin which united the 
two parts of the perch, we had ten carriages, with 
two horses each, to bring the palisades from the 
woods to the spot. When they were set up, our 
carpenters built a stage of boards all round within, 
about six feet high, for the men to stand on when eeos 
to fire through the loopholes. We had one swivel 
gun, which we mounted on one of the angles, and 
fired it as soon as fixed, to let the Indians know, 
if any were within hearing, that we had such 
pieces; and thus our fort, if such a magnificent 6610 
name may be given to so miserable a stockade, 
was finished in a week, though it rained so hard 
every other day that the men could not work. 

This gave me occasion to observe, that, when 
men are employed, they are best contented; forest 
on the days they worked they were good-natured 
and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having 
done a good day's work, they spent the evening 
jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous 
and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, ^20 
the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humor, which 
put me in mind of a sea-captain, whose rule it was 
to keep his men constantly at work; and, when 
his mate once told him that they had done every 
thing, and there was nothing further to employ 6620 
them about, "Oh" says he, "make them scour the 

anchor." 

17 



258 



Benjamin Franklin 



This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a 
sufficient defense against Indians, who have no 

8530 cannon. Finding ourselves now posted securely, 
and having a place to retreat to on occasion, we 
ventured out in parties to scour the adjacent 
country. We met with no Indians, but we found 
the places on the neighboring hills where they had 

6635 lain to watch our proceedings. There was an art 
in their contrivance of those places that seems 
worth mention. It being winter, a fire was neces- 
sary for them; but a common fire on the surface 
of the ground would by its light have discovered 

6640 their position at a distance. They had therefore 
dug holes in the ground about three feet diameter, 
and somewhat deeper; we saw where they had 
with their hatchets cut off the charcoal from the 
sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With these 

6645 coals they had made small fires in the bottom of 
the holes, and we observed among the weeds and 
grass the prints of their bodies, made by their 
laying all round, with their legs hanging down 
in the holes to keep their feet warm, which, with 

6650 them, is an essential point. This kind of fire, 
so managed, could not discover them, either by its 
light, flame, sparks, or even smoke; it appeared 
that their number was not great, and it seems 
they saw we were too many to be attacked by 

6655 them with prospect of advantage. 

We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian 



Benjamin Franklin 



259 



minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that 
the men did not generally attend his prayers and 
exhortations. When they enlisted, they were 
promised, besides pay and provisions, a gill ofeeeo 
rum a day, which was punctually served out to 
them, half in the morning, and the other half in 
the evening; and I observed they were as punctual 
in attending to receive it; upon which I said to 
Mr. Beatty, "It is, perhaps, below the dignity of sees 
your profession to act as steward of the rum, but 
if you were to deal it out and only just after pray- 
ers, you would have them all about you." He 
liked the thought, undertook the office, and, with 
the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, e«7o 
executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers 
more generally and more punctually attended; so 
that I thought this method preferable to the 
punishment inflicted by some military laws for 
non-attendance on divine service. ™™ 

I had hardly finished this business, and got 
my fort well stored with provisions, when I re- 
ceived a letter from the governor, acquainting 
me that he had called the Assembly, and wished 
my attendance there, if the posture of affairs oeso 
on the frontiers was such that my remaining 
there was no longer necessary. My friends, too, 
of the Assembly, pressing me by their letters to 
be, if possible, at the meeting, and my three 
intended forts being now completed, and thewss 



z6o 



Benjamin Franklin 



inhabitants contented to remain on their farms 
under that protection, I resolved to return; the 
more willingly, as a New England officer, Colonel 
Clapham, experienced in Indian war, being on 

«6&o a visit to our establishment, consented to accept 
the command. I gave him a commission, and, 
parading the garrison, had it read before them, 
and introduced him to them as an officer who, 
from his skill in military affairs, was much more 
fit to command them than myself; and, giving 
them a little exhortation, took my leave. I w r as 
escorted as far as Bethlehem, where I rested a 
few days to recover from the fatigue I had under- 
gone. The first night, being in a good bed, I 

«7oo could hardly sleep, it was so different from my 
hard lodging on the floor of our hut at Gnaden 
wrapped only in a blanket or two. 

While at Bethlehem, I inquired a little into 
the practice of the Moravians: some of them 

6705 had accompanied me, and all were very kind to 
me. I found they worked for a common stock, eat 
at common tables, and slept in common dormi- 
tories, great numbers together. In the dormi- 
tories I observed loopholes, at certain distances 

B7io all along just under the ceiling, which I thought 
judiciously placed for change of air. I was at 
their church, where I was entertained with good 
music, the organ being .'accompanied with violins, 
hautboys, flutes, clarinets, etc. I understood 



Benjamin Franklin 



261 



that their sermons were not usually preached t0 67i§ 
mixed congregations of men. women, and children, 
as is our common practice, but that they assembled 
sometimes the married men, at other times their 
wives, then the young men, the young women, 
and the little children, each division by itself. The 6720 
sermon I heard was to the latter, who came in 
and were placed [in rows on benches; the boys 
under the conduct of a young man, their tutor, 
and the girls conducted by a young woman. 
The discourse seemed well adapted to their 6725 
capacities, and was delivered in a pleasing, 
familiar manner, coaxing them, as it were, to be 
good. They behaved very orderly, but looked 
pale and unhealthy, which made me suspect they 
were kept too much within doors, or not allowed 6730 
sufficient exercise. 

I inquired concerning the Moravian mar- 
riages, whether the report was true that they were 
by lot. I was told that lots were used only in 
particular cases; that generally, when a young &n 
man found himself disposed to marry, he informed 
the elders of his class, who consulted the elder 
ladies that governed the young women. As these 
elders of the different sexes were well acquainted 
with the tempers and dispositions of their respec- 67« 
tive pupils, they could best judge what matches 
were suitable, and their judgments were gener- 
ally acquiesced in; but if, for example, it should 



262 



Benjamin Franklin 



happen that two or three young women were 

6745 found to be equally proper for the young man, 
the lot was then recurred to. I objected, if the 
matches were not made by the mutual choice of 
the parties, some of them may chance to be very 
unhappy. "And so they may," answered my 

6750 informer, "if you let the parties choose for them- 
selves"; which, indeed, I could not deny. 

Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the 
association went on swimmingly, the inhabitants 
that were not Quakers having pretty generally 

6755 come into it, formed themselves into companies, 
and chose their captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, 
according to the new law. Dr. B. visited me, and 
gave me an account of the pains he had taken 
to spread a general good liking to the law, and 

6760 ascribed much to those endeavors. I had had the 
vanity to ascribe all to my Dialogue; however, 
not knowing but that he might be in the right, 
I let him enjoy his opinion, which I take to be 
generally the best way in such cases. The officers, 

6765 meeting, chose me to be colonel of the regiment, 
which I this time accepted. I forget how many 
companies we had, but we paraded about twelve 
hundred well-looking men, with a company of 
artillery, who had been furnished with six brass 

6770 field-pieces, which they had become so expert in 
the use of as to fire twelve times in a minute. 
The first time I reviewed my regiment they 



Benjamin Franklin 



263 



accompanied me to my house, and would salute 
me with some rounds fired before my door, which 
shook down and broke several glasses of my 6775 
electrical apparatus. And my new honor proved 




From Holby't "Life of Benjamin Franklin" 

Franklin escorted by his regiment 
not much less brittle; for all our commissions 
were soon after broken by a repeal of the law in 
England. 

During this short time of my colonelship, being 67so 
about to set out on a journey to Virginia, the 
officers of my regiment took it into their heads 
that it would be proper for them to escort me out 
of town, as far as the Lower Ferry. Just as I 
was getting on horseback they came to my door, 6785 
between thirty and forty, mounted, and all in their 
uniforms. I had not been previously acquainted 
with the project, or I should have prevented it, 



264 



Benjamin Franklin 



being naturally averse to the assuming of state 

ergo on any occasion; and I was a good deal cha- 
grined at their appearance, as I could not avoid 
their accompanying me. What made it worse 
was, that, as soon as we began to move, they drew 
their swords and rode with them naked all the way. 

6795 Somebody wrote an account of this to the pro- 
prietor, and it gave him great offense. No such 
honor had been paid him when in the province, 
nor to any of his governors; and he said it was 
only proper to princes of the blood royal, which 

6800 may be true for aught I know, who was, and still 
am, ignorant of the etiquette in such cases. 

This silly affair, however, greatly increased 
his rancor against me, which was before not a 
little, on account of my conduct in the Assembly 

esoo respecting the exemption of his estate from taxa- 
tion, which I had always opposed very warmly, and 
not without severe reflections on his meanness 
and injustice of contending for it. He accused 
me to the ministry as being the great obstacle 

6810 to the king's service, preventing, by my influ- 
ence in the House, the proper form of the bills 
for raising money, and he instanced this parade 
with my officers as a proof of my having an 
intention to take the government of the province 

6815 out of his hands by force. He also applied to 
Sir Everard Fawkener, the postmaster-general, to 
deprive me of my office; but it had no other 



Benjamin Franklin 



effect than to procure from Sir Everard a gentle 
admonition. 

Notwithstanding the continual wrangle be- 6820 
tween the governor and the House, in which I, 
as a member, had so large a share, there still 
subsisted a civil intercourse between that gentle- 
man and myself, and we never had any personal 
difference. I have sometimes since thought that 6825 
his little or no resentment against me, for the 
answers it was known I drew up to his messages, 
might be the effect of professional habit, and that, 
being bred a lawyer, he might consider us both 
as merely advocates for contending clients in aesso 
suit, he for the proprietaries and I for the Assem- 
bly. He would, therefore, sometimes call in a 
friendly way to advise with me on difficult points, 
and sometimes, though not often, take my advice. 

We acted in concert to supply Braddock's army 6835 
with provisions; and, when the shocking news 
arrived of his defeat, the governor sent in haste 
for me, to consult with him on measures for 
preventing the desertion of the back counties. 
I forget now the advice I gave ; but I think it was, esio 
that Dunbar should be written to, and prevailed 
with, if possible, to post his troops on the frontiers 
for their protection, till, by re-enforcements from 
the colonies, he might be able to proceed on the 
expedition. And, after my return from the frontier, 6845 
he would have had me undertake the conduct 



266 



Benjamin Franklin 



of such an expedition with provincial troops, for 
the reduction of Fort Duquesne, Dunbar and 
his men being otherwise employed; and he pro- 

6850 posed to commission me as general. I had not 
so good an opinion of my military abilities as he 
professed to have, and I believe his professions 
must have exceeded his real sentiments; but 
probably he might think that my popularity would 

6855 facilitate the raising of the men, and my influence 
in Assembly, the grant of money to pay them, 
and that, perhaps, without taxing the proprie- 
tary estate. Finding me not so forward to engage 
as he expected, the project was dropped, and he 

6860 soon after left the government, being superseded 
by Captain Denny. 

Before I proceed in relating the part I had in 
public affairs under this new governor's adminis- 
tration, it may not be amiss here to give some 

eses account of the rise and progress of my philosophical 
reputation. 

In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with a 
Dr. Spence, who was lately arrived from Scot- 
land, and showed me some electric experiments. 

6870 They were imperfectly performed, as he was not 
very expert; but, being on a subject quite new 
to me, they equally surprised and pleased me. 
Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library 
company received from Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow 

6875 of the Royal Society of London, a present of a 



Benjamin Franklin 



267 



glass tube, with some account of the use of it in 
making such experiments. I eagerly seized the 
opportunity of repeating what I had seen at 
Boston; and, by much practice, acquired great 
readiness in performing those, also, which we had esso 
an account of from England, adding a number 
of new ones. I say much practice, for my house 
was continually full, for some time, with people 
who came to see these new wonders. 

To divide a little this incumbrance among 6885 
my friends, I caused a number of similar tubes 
to be blown at our glass-house, with which they 
furnished themselves, so that we had at length 
several performers. Among these, the principal 
was Mr. Kinnersley, an ingenious neighbor, who, 6890 
being out of business, I encouraged to undertake 
showing the experiments for money, and drew up 
for him two lectures, in which the experiments 
were ranged in such order, and accompanied with 
such explanations in such method, as that the 6895 
foregoing should assist in comprehending the 
following. He procured an elegant apparatus 
for the purpose, in which all the little machines 
that I had roughly made for myself were nicely 
formed by instrument-makers. His lectures were 6900 
well attended, and gave great satisfaction; and 
after some time he went through the colonies, 
exhibiting them in every capital town, and picked 
up some money. In the West India islands, 



268 



Benjamin Franklin 



6905 indeed, it was with difficulty the experiments 
could be made, from the general moisture of the 
air. 

Obliged as we were to Mr. Collinson for his 
present of the tube, etc., I thought it right he 

6910 should be informed of our success in using it, 
and wrote him several letters containing ac- 
counts of our experiments. He got them read 
in the Royal Society, where they were not at 
first thought worth so much notice as to be 

69i5 printed in their Transactions. One paper, which 
I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the sameness of 
lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchel, 
an acquaintance of mine, and one of the members 
also of that society, who wrote me word that it 

6920 had been read, but was laughed at by the con- 
noisseurs. The papers, however, being shown 
to Dr. Fothergill, he thought them of too much 
value to be stifled, and advised the printing of 
them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to Cave 

6925 for publication in his Gentleman's Magazine; but 
he chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, 
and Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it 
seems, judged rightly for his profit, for by the 
additions that arrived afterward, they swelled to 

6930 a quarto volume, which has had five editions, and 
cost him nothing for copy-money. 

It was, however, some time before those 
papers were much taken notice of in England. 



Benjamin Franklin 



26g 



A copy of them happening to fall into the hands 
of the Count de Buff on, a philosopher deservedly 6935 
of great reputation in France, and, indeed, all 
over Europe, he prevailed with M. Dalibard to 
translate them into French, and they were printed 
at Paris. The publication offended the Abbe 
Nollet, preceptor in Natural Philosophy to the 6940 
royal family, and an able experimenter, who had 
formed and published a theory of electricity, 
which then had the general vogue. He could not 
at first believe that such a work came from Amer- 
ica, and said it must have been fabricated by his 6945 
enemies at Paris, to decry his system. After- 
wards, having been assured that there really 
existed such a person as Franklin at Philadelphia, 
which he had doubted, he wrote and published 
a volume of Letters, chiefly addressed to me, 6950 
defending his theory, and denying the verity of 
my experiments, and of the positions deduced 
from them. 

I once purposed answering the abbe, and 
actually began the answer; but, on considera- 6955 
tion that my writings contained a description of 
experiments which any one might repeat and 
verify, and if not to be verified, could not be de- 
fended; or of observations offered as conjectures, 
and not delivered dogmatically, therefore not69eo 
laying me under any obligation to defend them; 
and reflecting that a dispute between two 



2J0 



Benjamin Franklin 



persons, writing in different languages, might 
be lengthened greatly by mistranslations, and 
6965 thence misconceptions of one another's mean- 
ing, much of one of the abbe's letters being 
founded on an error in the trans- 
lation, I concluded to let my 
papers shift for themselves, be- 
lieving it was better to spend 
what time I could spare from 
public business in making new 
experiments, than in disputing 
about those already made. I 
therefore never answered M. 
Nollet, and the event gave me 
no cause to repent my silence; 
for my friend M. le Roy, of the 

An instrument designed ^ 1 a -i r • 1 

by Franklin to draw elec- Royal Academy of Sciences, took 

tricity from the clouds up my cause and re f u ted him; 

my book was translated into the Italian, Ger- 
man, and Latin languages; and the doctrine it 
contained was by degrees universally adopted by 
the philosophers of Europe, in preference to that 

6985 of the abbe; so that he lived to see himself the 
last of his sect, except Monsieur B — , of Paris, 
his Sieve and immediate disciple. 

What gave my book the more sudden and 
general celebrity, was the success of one of its 

ewe* proposed experiments, made by Messrs. Dali- 
bard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning 




! 



Benjamin Franklin 



271 



from the clouds. This engaged the public atten- 
tion every where. M. de Lor, who had an appara- 
! tus for experimental philosophy, and lectured in 
that branch of science, undertook to repeat what m» 




From the bronze t&blst on the pededtal of Greenough'a statue of Franklin 

Franklin's experiment with lightning 



he called the Philadelphia Experiments; and, after 
they were performed before the king and court, 
all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I 
will not swell this narrative with an account of 
that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure 7000 
I received in the success of a similar one I made 
soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both 
are to be found in the histories of electricity. 



2 72 Benjamin Franklin 

Br. Wright, an English physician, when at 

7005 Paris, wrote to a friend, who was of the Royal 
Society, an account of the high esteem my 
experiments were in among the learned abroad, 
and of their wonder that my writings had been 
so little noticed in England. The society, on 

7010 this, resumed the consideration of the letters 
that had been read to them; and the celebrated 
Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them, 
and of all I had afterwards sent to England on 
the subject, which he accompanied with some 

7oi5 praise of the writer. This summary was then 
printed in their Transactions ; and some members 
of the society in London, particularly the very 
ingenious Mr. Canton, having verified the experi- 
ment of procuring lightning from the clouds by 

7020 a pointed rod, and acquainting them with the 
success, they soon made me more than amends 
for the slight with which they had before treated 
me. Without my having made any application 
for that honor, they chose me a member, and 

7025 voted that I should be excused the customary 
payments, which would have amounted to twenty- 
five guineas; and ever since have given me their 
Transactions gratis. They also presented me 
with the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley for the 

7030 year 1753, the delivery of which was. accompanied 
by a very handsome speech of the president, Lord 
Macclesfield, wherein I was highly honored. 



Benjamin Franklin 



273 



Our new governor, Captain Denny, brought 
over for me the before-mentioned medal from 
the Royal Society, which he presented to me at 7035 
an entertainment given him by the city. He 
accompanied it with very polite expressions of 




The Copley medal presented to Franklin by the Royal 
Society of London 



his esteem for me, having, as he said, been 
long acquainted with my character. After din- 
ner, when the company, as was customary at 70*0 
that time, were engaged in drinking, he took me 
aside into another room, and acquainted me that 
he had been advised by his friends in England 
to cultivate a friendship with me, as one who 
was capable of giving him the best advice, and 7045 
of contributing most effectually to the making 
his administration easy; that he therefore de- 
sired of all things to have a good understanding 
with me, and he begged me to be assured of 
his readiness on all occasions to render me every 7050 
service that might be in his power. He said 

18 



274 



Benjamin Franklin 



much to me, also, of the proprietor's good dispo- 
sition towards the province, and of the advantage 
it might be to us all, and to me in particular, if 

-ess the opposition that had been so long continued 
to his measures was dropped, and harmony restored 
between him and the people; in effecting which, 
it was thought no one could be more serviceable 
than myself ; and I might depend on adequate ac- 

7060 knowledgments and recompenses, etc., etc. The 
drinkers, finding we did not return immediately 
to the table, sent us a decanter of Madeira, which 
the governor made liberal use of, and in pro- 
portion became more profuse of his solicitations 

7065 and promises. 

My answers were to this purpose: that my 
circumstances, thanks to God, were such as to 
make proprietary favors unnecessary to me; and 
that, being a member of the Assembly, I could 

7070 not possibly accept of any; that, however, I had 
no personal enmity to the proprietary, and that, 
whenever the public measures he proposed should 
appear to be for the good of the people, no one 
should espouse and forward them more zealously 

7075 than myself; my past opposition having been 
founded on this, that the measures which had been 
urged were evidently intended to serve the pro- 
prietary interest, with great prejudice to that of 
the people; that I was much obliged to him (the 

7080 governor) for his professions of regard to me, and 



Benjamin Franklin 



275 



that he might rely on every thing in my power to 
make his administration as easy as possible, hop- 
ing at the same time that he had not brought with 
him the same unfortunate instruction his prede- 
cessor had been hampered with. 7085 

On this he did not then explain himself; but 
when he afterwards came to do business with 
the Assembly, they appeared again, the dis- 
putes were renewed, and I was as active as ever 
in the opposition, being the penman, first, of 7090 
the request to have a communication of the 
instructions, and then of the remarks upon 
them, which may be found in the votes of the 
time, and in the Historical Review I afterward 
published. But between us personally no enmity 7095 
arose; we were often together; he was a man 
of letters, had seen much of the world, and was 
very entertaining and pleasing in conversation. 
He gave me the first information that my old 
friend Jas. Ralph was still alive; that he was 7100 
esteemed one of the best political writers in 
England; had been employed in the dispute 
between Prince Frederic and the king, and had 
obtained a pension of three hundred a year; that 
his reputation was indeed small as a poet, Pope 7105 
having damned his poetry in the Dunciad; but 
his prose was thought as good as any man's. 

The Assembly finally finding the proprietary 
obstinately persisted in manacling their deputies 



2?6 



Benjamin Franklin 



nio with instructions inconsistent not only with the 
privileges of the people, but with the service of 
the crown, resolved to petition the king against 
them, and appointed me their agent to go over 




From M&ee's "8torieB of Heroism' ' 

Independence Hall in the days of Franklin 



to England, to present and support the petition. 

7H5 The House had sent up a bill to the governor, 
granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds for the 
king's use (ten thousand pounds of which was 
subjected to the orders of the then general, Lord 
Loudoun), which the governor absolutely refused 

7120 to pass, in compliance with his instructions. 

I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the 
packet at New York, for my passage, and my 
stores were put on board, when Lord Loudoun 
arrived at Philadelphia, expressly, as he told 



Benjamin Franklin 



277 



me, to endeavor an accommodation between the 7125 
governor and Assembly, that his majesty's serv- 
ice might not be obstructed by their dissen- 
sions. Accordingly, he desired the governor and 
myself to meet him, that he might hear what 
was to be said on both sides. We met and dis-7130 
cussed the business. In behalf of the Assembly, 
I urged all the various arguments that may be 
found in the public papers of that time, which 
were of my writing, and are printed with the 
minutes of the Assembly; and the governor 7135 
pleaded his instructions; the bond he had given 
to observe them, and his ruin if he disobeyed, 
yet seemed not unwilling to hazard himself if Lord 
Loudoun would advise it. This his lordship did 
not choose to do, though I once thought I had 7140 
nearly prevailed with him to do it; but finally 
he rather chose to urge the compliance of the 
Assembly; and he entreated me to use my 
endeavors with them for that purpose, declaring 
that he would spare none of the king's troops 7145 
for the defense of our frontiers, and that, if we 
did not continue to provide for that defense our- 
selves, they must remain exposed to the enemy. 

I acquainted the House with what had passed, 
and, presenting them with a set of resolutions 7150 
I had drawn up, declaring our rights, and that 
we did not relinquish our claim to those rights, 
but only suspended the exercise of them on 



278 



Benjamin Franklin 



this occasion through force, against which we 
7i55 protested, they at length agreed to drop that bill, 
and frame another conformable to the proprie- 
tary instructions. This of course the governor 
passed, and I was then at liberty to proceed 
on my voyage. But, in the mean time, the packet 
7160 had sailed with my sea-stores, which was some 
loss to me, and my only recompense was his 
lordship's thanks for my service, all the credit 
of obtaining the accommodation falling to his 
share. 

7i65 He set out for New York before me; and, as 
the time for dispatching the packet-boats was 
at his disposition, and there were two then re- 
maining there, one of which, he said, was to sail 
very soon, I requested to know the precise time, 

7170 that I might not miss her by any delay of mine. 
His answer was, "I have given out that she is to 
sail on Saturday next; but I may let you know, 
entre nous, that if you are there by Monday 
morning, you will be in time, but do not delay 

7175 longer." By some accidental hinderance at a 
ferry, it was Monday noon before I arrived, and 
I was much afraid she might have sailed, as the 
wind was fair; but I was soon made easy by 
the information that she was still in the harbor, 

7180 and would not move till the next day. One 
would imagine that I was now on the very point 
of departing for Europe. I thought so; but I 



Benjamin Franklin 



279 



was not then so well acquainted with his lord- 
ship's character, of which indecision was one of the 
strongest features. I shall give some instances. 7185 
It was about the beginning of April that I came 
to New York, and I think it was near the end of 
June before we sailed. There were then two of 
the packet-boats, which had been long in port, 
but were detained for the general's letters, which 7190 
were always to be ready to-morrow. Another 
packet arrived; she too was detained ; and, before 
we sailed, a fourth was expected. Ours was the 
first to be dispatched, as having been there long- 
est. Passengers were engaged in all, and some 7195 
extremely impatient to be gone, and the merchants 
uneasy about their letters, and the orders they 
had given for insurance (it being war time) for 
fall goods; but their anxiety availed nothing; 
his lordship's letters were not ready; and yet 7200 
whoever waited on him found him always at his 
desk, pen in hand, and concluded he must needs 
write abundantly. 

Going myself one morning to pay my re- 
spects, I found in his antechamber one Innis, a 7205 
messenger of Philadelphia, who had come from 
thence express with a packet from Governor 
Denny for the General. He delivered to me 
some letters from my friends there, which occa- 
sioned my inquiring when he was to return, and 7210 
where he lodged, that I might send some letters 



28o 



Benjamin Franklin 



by him. He told me he was ordered to call to- 
morrow at nine for the General's answer to the 
governor, and should set off immediately. I 

7215 put my letters into his hands the same day. A 
fortnight after I met him again in the same 
place. "So, you are soon returned, Innis?" 
"Returned! no, I am not gone yet." "How 
so?" "I have called here by order every morning 

7220 these two weeks past for his lordship's letter, 
and it is not yet ready." "Is it possible, when 
he is so great a writer? for I see him constantly 
at his escritoire." "Yes," says Innis, "but he is 
like St. George on the signs, always on horseback, 

7225 and never rides on." This observation of the 
messenger was, it seems, well founded; for, when 
in England, I understood that Mr. Pitt gave it as 
one reason for removing this general, and sending 
Generals Amherst and Wolfe, that the minister 

im never heard from him, and could not know what he 
was doing. 

h This daily expectation of sailing, and all the three 
packets going down to Sandy Hook, to join the 
fleet there, the passengers thought it best to be on 

7235 board, lest by a sudden order the ships should sail, 
and they be left behind. There, if I remember 
right, we were about six weeks, consuming our 
sea-stores, and obliged to procure more. At 
length the fleet sailed, the General and all his army 

7240 on board, bound to Louisburg, with intent to 



Benjamin Franklin 



281 



besiege and take that fortress; all the packet- 
boats in company ordered to attend the General's 
ship, ready to receive his dispatches when they 
should be ready. We were out five days before we 
got a letter with leave to part, and then our ship 7245 
quitted the fleet and steered for England. The 
other two packets he still detained, carried 
them with him to Halifax, where he stayed some 
time to exercise the men in sham attacks upon 
vsham forts, then altered his mind as to besieging 7250 
Louisburg, and returned to New York, with all 
his troops, together with the two packets above 
mentioned, and all their passengers! During 
his absence the French and savages had taken 
Fort George, on the frontier of that province, and 7255 
the savages had massacred many of the garrison 
after capitulation. 

I saw afterwards in London Captain Bonnell, 
who commanded one of those packets. He told 
me that, when he had been detained a month, 7260 
he acquainted his lordship that his ship was 
grown foul, to a degree that mast necessarily 
hinder her fast sailing, a point of consequence for 
a packet-boat, and requested an allowance of time 
to heave her down and clean hei; bottom. He 7265 
was asked how long time that would require. 
He answered, three days. The General replied : 1 1 If 
you can do it in one day, I give leave; other- 
wise not; for you must certainly sail the day 



282 



Benjamin Franklin 



7270 after to-morrow." So he never obtained leave, 
though detained afterwards from day to day 
during full three months. 

I saw also in London one of BonnelTs passen- 
gers, who was so enraged against his lordship 

7275 for deceiving and detaining him so long at New 
York, and then carrying him to Halifax and back 
again, that he swore he would sue him for damages. 
Whether he did or not, I never heard; but, as he 
represented the injury to his affairs, it w r as very 

7280 considerable. 

On the whole, I wondered much how such a 
man came to be intrusted w r ith so important a 
business as the conduct of a great army; but, 
having since seen more of the great world, and 

7255 the means of obtaining, and motives for giving 
places, my wonder is diminished. General Shir- 
ley, on whom the command of the army devolved 
upon the death of Braddock, would, in my opinion, 
if continued in place, have made a much better 

7290 campaign than that of Loudoun in 1757, which 
was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our 
nation beyond conception; for, though Shipley 
was not a bred soldier, he was sensible and saga- 
cious in himself, and attentive to good advice 

7295 from others, capable of forming judicious plans, 
and quick and active in carrying them into execu- 
tion. Loudoun, instead of defending the colonies 
with his great army, left them totally exposed, 



Benjamin Franklin 



283 



while he paraded idly at Halifax, by which means 
Fort George was lost ; besides, he deranged all our 7300 
mercantile operations, and distressed our trade, by 
a long embargo on the exportation of provisions, 
on pretence of keeping supplies from being obtained 
by the enemy, but in reality for beating down 
their price in favor of the contractors, in whose 7305 
profits, it was said, perhaps from suspicion only, 
he had a share. And, when at length the embargo 
was taken off, by neglecting to send notice of it 
to Charlestown, the Carolina fleet was detained 
near three months longer, whereby their bottoms 7310 
were so much damaged by the worm that a great 
part of them foundered in their passage home. 

Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being 
relieved from so burdensome a charge as the 
conduct of an army must be to a man unacquainted 7315 
with military business. I was at the entertain- 
ment given by the city of New York to Lord 
Loudoun, on his taking upon him the command. 
Shirley, though thereby superseded, was present 
also. There was a great company of officers, 7320 
citizens, and strangers, and, some chairs having 
been borrowed in the neighborhood, there was 
one among them very low, which fell to the lot of 
Mr. Shirley. Perceiving it as I sat by him, I 
said, 1 1 They have given you, sir, too low a seat." 7325 
"No matter," says he, "Mr. Franklin, I find a 
low seat the easiest." 



284 



Benjamin Franklin 



While I was, as afore mentioned, detained at 
New York, I received all the accounts of the 

7330 provisions, etc., that I had furnished to Brad- 
dock, some of which accounts could not sooner 
be obtained from the different persons I had 
employed to assist in the business. I presented 
them to Lord Loudoun, desiring to be paid the 

7335 balance. He caused them to be regularly ex- 
amined by the proper officer, who, after comparing 
every article with its voucher, certified them to 
be right ; and the balance due for which his lord- 
ship promised to give me an order on the pay- 

7340 master. This was, however, put off from time 
to time; and, though I called often for it by 
appointment, I did not get it. At length, just 
before my departure, he told me he had, on better 
consideration, concluded not to mix his accounts 

7345 with those of his predecessors. "And you," 
says he, "when in England, have only to exhibit 
your accounts at the treasury, and you will be 
paid immediately.' ' 

I mentioned, but without effect, the great and 

7350 unexpected expense I had been put to by being 
detained so long at New York, as a reason for 
my desiring to be presently paid; and on my 
observing that it was not right I should be put 
to any further trouble or delay in obtaining the 

7355 money I had advanced, as I charged no com- 
mission for my service, "O, sir," says he, "you 



Benjamin Franklin 



285 



must not think of persuading us that you are no 
gainer; we understand better those affairs, and 
know that every one concerned in supplying 
the army finds means, in the doing it, to fill his73<>o 



own pockets." I assured him that was not my 
case, and that I had not pocketed a farthing; but 
he appeared clearly r?ot to believe me; and, indeed, 
I have since learnt that immense fortunes are 



often made in such employments. As to my 7355 
balance, I am not paid it to this day, of which 
more hereafter. 

Our captain of the packet had boasted much, 
before we sailed, of the swiftness of his ship; 
unfortunately, when we came to sea, she proved 7370 
the dullest of ninety-six sail, to his no small 
mortification. After many conjectures respect- 
ing the cause, when we were near another ship 
almost as dull as ours, which, however, gained 
upon us, the captain ordered all hands to come 7375 
aft, and stand as near the ensign staff as possible. 
We were, passengers included, about forty per- 
sons. While we stood there, the ship mended her 
pace, and soon left her neighbor far behind, which 
proved clearly what our captain suspected, thairm 
she was loaded too much by the head. The 
casks of water, it seems, had been all placed for- 
ward; these he therefore ordered to be moved 
further aft, on which the ship recovered her 
character, and proved the best sailer in the fleet. ™-o 



286 



Benjamin Franklin 



The captain said she had once gone at the 
rate of thirteen knots, which is accounted thir- 
teen miles per hour. We had on board, as a 
passenger, Captain Kennedy, of the Navy, who 

7390 contended that it was impossible, and that no 
ship ever sailed so fast, and that there must 
have been some error in the division of the log- 
line, or some mistake in heaving the log. A 
wager ensued between the two captains, to be 

7395 decided when there should be sufficient wind. 
Kennedy thereupon examined rigorously the 
log-line, and, being satisfied with that, he de- 
termined to throw the log himself. Accordingly 
some days after, when the wind blew very fair 

7400 and fresh, and the captain of the packet, Lut- 
widge, said he believed she then went at the 
rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made the experi- 
ment, and owned his wager lost. 

The above fact I give for the sake of the fol- 

7405 lowing observation. It has been remarked, as 
an imperfection in the art of ship-building, that 
it can never be known, till she is tried, whether 
a new ship will or will not be a good sailer; for 
that the model of a good-sailing ship has been 

7410 exactly followed in a new one, which has 
proved, on the contrary, remarkably dull. I 
apprehend that this may partly be occasioned 
by the different opinions of seamen respecting 
the modes of lading, rigging, and sailing of a 



Benjamin Franklin 



287 



ship ; each has his system ; and the same vessel, 7415 
laden by the judgment and orders of one cap- 
tain, shall sail better or worse than when by the 
orders of another. Besides, it scarce ever hap- 
pens that a ship is formed, fitted for the sea, 
and sailed by the same person. One man builds 7420 
the hull, another rigs her, a third lades and sails 
her. No one of these has the advantage of 
knowing all the ideas and experience of the others, 
and, therefore, can not draw just conclusions from 
a combination of the whole. 7425 

Even in the simple operation of sailing when 
at sea, I have often observed different judgments 
in the officers who commanded the successive 
watches, the wind being the same. One would 
have the sails trimmed sharper or flatter than 7430 
another, so that they seemed to have no certain 
rule to govern by. Yet I think a set of experi- 
ments might be instituted, first, to determine 
the most proper form of the hull for swift sailing; 
next, the best dimensions and properest place for 7435 
the masts; then the form and quantity of sails, 
and their position, as the wind may be ; and, lastly, 
the disposition of the lading. This is an age of 
experiments, and I think a set accurately made 
and combined would be of great use. I am per- 7440 
suaded, therefore, that ere long some ingenious 
philosopher will undertake it, to whom I wish 
success. 



288 



Benjamin Franklin 



We were several times chased in our passage, 
7«5 but outsailed every thing, and in thirty days 
had soundings. We had a good observation, and 
the captain judged himself so near our port, 

Falmouth, that, if we 
made a good run in the 
night, we might be off 
the mouth of that harbor 
in the morning, and by 
running in the night 
might escape the notice 
of the enemy's priva- 
teers, who often cruised 
near the entrance of the 
channel. Accordingly, all 
the sail was set that we 
could possibly make, and 

Soup dishes for use on ship- the wind being very fresh 
board, designed by Franklin ^ ^ we went rf fat 

before it, and made great way. The captain, 
after his observation, shaped his course, as he 

7465 thought, so as to pass wide of the Scilly Isles; but 
it seems there is sometimes a strong indraught 
setting up St. George's Channel, which deceives 
seamen and caused the loss of Sir Cloudesley 
Shovel's squadron. This indraught was probably 

7470 the cause of what happened to us. 

We had a watchman placed in the bow, to 
whom they often called, " Look well out before 




Benjamin Franklin 



289 



there" and he as often answered, "Ay, ay"; but 
perhaps had his eyes shut, and was half asleep at 
the time, they sometimes answering, as is said, 7475 
mechanically; for he did not see a light just 
before us, which had been hid by the studding- 
sails from the man at the helm, and from the 
rest of the watch, but by an accidental yaw of 
the ship was discovered, and occasioned a great 7480 
alarm, we being very near it, the light appearing 
to me as big as a cart-wheel. It was midnight, 
and our captain fast asleep ; but Captain Kennedy, 
jumping upon deck, and seeing the danger, ordered 
the ship to wear round, all sails standing; an opera- 7485 
tion dangerous to the masts, but it carried us clear, 
and we escaped shipwreck, for we were running 
right upon the rocks on which the light-house was 
erected. This deliverance impressed me strongly 
with the utility of light-houses, and made me 4790 
resolve to encourage the building of more of them 
in America, if I should live to return there. 

In the morning it was found by the soundings, 
etc., that we were near our port, but a thick fog 
hid the land from our sight. About nine o'clock 7495 
the fog began to rise, and seemed to be lifted up 
from the water like the curtain at a play-house, 
discovering underneath the town of Falmouth, 
the vessels in its harbor, and the fields that 
surrounded it. This was a most pleasing spectacle 7500 

to those who had been so long without any other 
19 



290 



Benjamin Franklin 



prospects than the uniform view of a vacant 
ocean, and it gave us the more pleasure as we were 
now free from the anxieties which the state of 

7505 war occasioned. 

I set out immediately, with my son, for Lon- 
don, and we only stopped a little by the way to view 
Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, and Lord Pem- 
broke's house and gardens, with his very curious 

7510 antiquities at Wilton. We arrived in London 
the 27th of July, 1757. 

As soon as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles 
had provided for me, I went to visit Dr. Fother- 
gill, to whom I was strongly recommended, and 

7515 whose counsel respecting my proceedings I was 
advised to obtain. He was against an immedi- 
ate complaint to government, and thought the 
proprietaries should first be personally applied to, 
who might possibly be induced by the interpo- 

?52osition and persuasion of some private friends, to 
accommodate matters amicably. I then waited 
on my old friend and correspondent, Mr. Peter 
Collinson, who told me that John Hanbury, the 
great Virginia merchant, had requested to be in- 

7525 formed when I should arrive, that he might carry 
me to Lord Granville's, who was then President 
of the Council and wished to see me as soon as 
possible. I agreed to go with him the next morn- 
ing. Accordingly Mr. Hanbury called for me and 



Benjamin Franklin 



took me in his carriage to that nobleman's, who 7530 
received me with great civility; and after some 
questions respecting the present state of affairs 
in America and discourse thereupon, he said to 
me: "You Americans have wrong ideas of the 
nature of your constitution; you contend that 7535 
the king's instructions to his governors are not 
laws, and think yourselves at liberty to regard 
or disregard them at your own discretion. But 
those instructions are not like the pocket in- 
structions given to a minister going abroad, for 7540 
regulating his conduct in some trifling point of 
ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges 
learned in the laws; they are then considered, 
debated, and perhaps amended in Council, after 
which they are signed by the king. They are 7545 
then, so far as they relate to you, the law of the 
land, for the king is the Legislator of the 
Colonies." I told his lordship this was new 
doctrine to me. I had always understood from 
our charters that our laws were to be made by 7550 
our Assemblies, to be presented indeed to the 
king for his royal assent, but that being once 
given the king could not repeal or alter them. 
And as the Assemblies could not make perma- 
nent laws without his assent, so neither could 7555 
he make a law for them without theirs. He 
assured me I was totally mistaken. I did not 
think so, however, and his lordship's conversation 



2Q2 



Benjamin Franklin 



having a little alarmed me as to what might 
7560 be the sentiments of the court concerning us, I 
wrote it down as soon as I returned to my lodg- 
ings. I recollected that about 20 years before, 
a clause in a bill brought into Parliament by the 
ministry had proposed to make the king's instruc- 
ts tions laws in the colonies, but the clause was 
thrown out by the Commons, for which we adored 
them as our friends and friends of liberty, till 
by their conduct towards us in 1765 it seemed 
that they had refused that point of sovereignty 
7570 to the king only that they might reserve it for 
themselves. 

After some days, Dr. Fothergill having spoken 
to the proprietaries, they agreed to a meeting 
with me at Mr. T. Penn's house in Spring Garden. 

7575 The conversation at first consisted of mutual 
declarations of disposition to reasonable accom- 
modations, but I suppose each party had its own 
ideas of what should be meant by reasonable. We 
then went into consideration of our several 

7580 points of complaint, which I enumerated. The 
proprietaries justified their conduct as well as 
they could, and I the Assembly's. We now 
appeared very wide, and so far from each other 
in our opinions as to discourage all hope of 

7585 agreement. However, it was concluded that I 
should give them the heads of our complaints in 
writing, and they promised then to consider 



Benjamin Franklin 



293 



them. I did so soon after, but they put the 
paper into the hands of their solicitor, Ferdinand 
John Paris, who managed for them all their law 7590 
business in their great suit with the neighboring 
proprietary of Maryland, Lord Baltimore, which 
had subsisted 70 years, and wrote for them all 
their papers and messages in their dispute with 
the Assembly. He was a proud, angry man, and 7595 
as I had occasionally in the answers of the Assem- 
bly treated his papers with some severity, they 
being really weak in point of argument and 
haughty in expression, he had conceived a mortal 
enmity to me, which discovering itself whenever 7000 
we met, I declined the proprietary's proposal 
that he and I should discuss the heads of com- 
plaint between our two selves, and refused treat- 
ing with any one but them. They then by his 
advice put the paper into the hands of the Attor- 7005 
ney and Solicitor-General for their opinion and 
counsel upon it, where it lay unanswered a year 
wanting eight days, during which time I made 
frequent demands of an answer from the proprie- 
taries, but without obtaining any other than that 7«o 
they had not yet received the opinion of the Attor- 
ney and Solicitor-General. What it was when they 
did receive it I never learned, for they did not 
communicate it to me, but sent a long message to 
the Assembly drawn and signed by Paris, reciting 76is 
my paper, complaining of its want of formality, 



2Q4 



Benjamin Franklin 



as a rudeness on my part, and giving a flimsy 
justification of their conduct, adding that they 
should be willing to accommodate matters if the 

7620 Assembly would send out some person of candor 
to treat with them for that purpose, intimating 
thereby that I was not such. 

The want of formality or rudeness was, proba- 
bly, my not having addressed the paper to them 

7625 with their assumed titles of True and Absolute 
Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania, 
which I omitted as not thinking it necessary in 
a paper, the intention of which was only to 
reduce to a certainty by writing, what in conver- 

7630 sation I had delivered viva voce. 

But during this delay, the Assembly having 
prevailed with Governor Denny to pass an act 
taxing the proprietary estate in common with the 
estates of the people, which was the grand 

7635 point in dispute, they omitted answering the 
message. 

When this act however came over, the pro- 
prietaries, counselled by Paris, determined to 
oppose its receiving the royal assent. Accord- 

764oingly they petitioned the king in Council, and a 
hearing w^as appointed in which two lawyers were 
employed by them against the act, and two 
by me in support of it. They alleged that the 
act was intended to load the proprietary estate 

76« in order to spare those of the people, and that 



Benjamin Franklin 



295 



if it were suffered to continue in force, and the 
proprietaries who were in odium with the people, 
left to their mercy in proportioning the taxes, 
they would inevitably be ruined. We replied 
that the act had no such intention, and would have feso 
no such effect. That the 
assessors were honest and dis- 
creet men under an oath to 
assess fairly and equitably, 
and that any advantage each 
of them might expect in lessen- 
ing his own tax by augmenting 
that of the proprietaries was 
too trifling to induce them to 
perjure themselves. This is 
the purport of what I remem- 
ber as urged by both sides, 
except that we insisted strongly 
on the mischievous conse- 
quences that must attend a 
repeal, for that the money, 
£100,000, being printed and given to the 
king's use, expended in his service, and now 
spread among the people, the repeal would 
strike it dead in their hands to the ruin of76?o 
many, and the total discouragement of future 
grants, and the selfishness of the proprietors 
in soliciting such a general catastrophe, merely 
from a groundless fear of their estate being 




The famous Houdon 
bust of Franklin 



2q6 Benjamin Franklin 

7675 taxed too highly, was insisted on in the strongest 
terms. On this, Lord Mansfield, one of the 
council rose, and beckoning me took me into the 
clerk's chamber, while the lawyers were pleading, 
and asked me if I was really of opinion that no 

7680 injury would be done the proprietary estate in 
the execution of the act. I said certainly. 
"Then," says he, "you can have little objection 
to enter into an engagement to assure that 
point. " I answered, "None at all." He then 

7685 called in Paris, and after some discourse, his 
lordship's proposition was accepted on both sides; 
a paper to the purpose was drawn up by the 
Clerk of the Council, which I signed with Mr. 
Charles, who was also an Agent of the Province 

7690 for their ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield 
returned to the Council Chamber, where finally 
the law was allowed to pass. Some changes 
were however recommended and we also engaged 
they should be made by a subsequent law, but 

7695 the Assembly did not think them necessary; 
for one year's tax having been levied by the act 
before the order of Council arrived, they appointed 
a committee to examine the proceedings of the 
assessors, and on this committee they put several 

7700 particular friends of the proprietaries. After a 
full inquiry, they unanimously signed a report 
that they found the tax had been assessed with 
perfect equity. 



Benjamin Franklin 



297 



The Assembly looked into my entering into 
the first part of the engagement, as an essential 7705 
service to the Province, since it secured the 
credit of the paper money then spread over all 
the country. They gave me their thanks in 
form when I returned. But the proprietaries 
were enraged at Governor Denny for having 7710 
passed the act, and turned him out with threats 
of suing him for breach of instructions which 
he had given bond to observe. He, however, 
having done it at the instance of the General, 
and for his majesty's service, and having some 7715 
powerful interest at court, despised the threats 
and they were never put in execution. 




ROM Franklin's own hand we have thus far an 



account of his family and his boyhood. We 



know how he worked and studied and have 
some notion of his pleasures, sports, and playmates. 
We know how he pushed his way into the world, 
how he built up his business, and how he became 
sufficiently wealthy to give up active business for 
public duties. The leading ambitions of his life were 
the improvement of his mind, sufficient wealth to be 
independent, and the benefit of the people. His 
Autobiography breaks off in the midst of his third 
residence in England. Historians regret that he did 
not live to write his experience as a maker of history, 
but we have had already the most that he cared to 
say about himself. The rest of his life was spent 
principally in the very thick of the most eventful 
twenty years of our American history. 

After the successful conclusion of the affair with the 
Perm heirs, Franklin lingered in England for some time, 
endeavoring to reconcile the British ministry and the 
American colonies. Offers of high position were held 
out to him by the cabinet, and Franklin went so far 
in his efforts that, for a time, the colonists began to 
suspect his loyalty, while, in London, his Americanism 
gave offense. Far from heaping new honors on 
Franklin's head, the ministers stripped him of the 
deputy postmaster generalship, and he left England 
just in time to escape detention. He reached Phila- 
delphia during the excitement that followed the battle 




[298 



Conclusion of Franklin's Life 2QQ 



of Lexington, and threw himself ardently into the work 
of organizing armed resistance. The Pennsylvania 
Assembly elected him a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, and the Congress made him postmaster 
general. Franklin was then chosen president of the 
convention held to set aside Penn's charter and to 
frame a constitution for Pennsylvania. As chairman 
of the committee of public safety he was for a time 
virtually governor of the commonwealth. 

After taking part in the organization of the Con- 
tinental army at Cambridge, and in unsuccessful 
negotiations with Canada, Franklin sat in the congress 
that sent out the famous Declaration of Independence. 
Later in the same year he went to Paris to seek the 
aid of the French government. How successfully he 
performed this mission is a matter of record, and 
forms one of the most astonishing chapters of diplo- 
matic history. 

Franklin remained in Paris nine years. He was 
honored by scientific men, petted by society, and 
trusted by statesmen. He borrowed immense sums 
for the American Congress; shipped arms, clothing, 
and ammunition; fitted out privateers to prey on 
British merchantmen; sold the prizes they took; 
conducted negotiations with the French government; 
and secured the cooperation of the French soldiers 
and fleet in time to share in the surrender of Cornwallis. 
As the Revolutionary War drew to a close, Franklin 
was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate 
a treaty of peace. He stood out for the cession 
of Canada to the United States, but was overruled 
by other American commissioners, who preferred to 
stickle for smaller matters. 

On the conclusion of peace Franklin returned to 
Philadelphia, hoping at the age of seventy-nine to find 
rest, but he was called upon to act as president 
(governor) of the state. Dr. Franklin was a member 
of the convention that drafted our present national 



3oo 



Conclusion oj Franklin's Life 



constitution, and lived to congratulate his fellow- 
citizens on the inauguration of the first President. 

Franklin died on the night of April 17, 1790, at the 
age of eighty-four. He lies in a modest grave in the 
heart of Philadelphia. When a young man working 
at his trade he wrote his own epitaph: 

THE BODY 
of 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 

Printer, 
(like the cover of an old book 
its contents torn out, 
and stript of its lettering and gilding,) 

lies here food for worms; 
yet the work itself shall not be lost, 
for it will (as he believed) appear once more 
in a new 
and more beautiful edition, 
corrected and amended 
by 

THE AUTHOR. 




1611 King James's translation of the Bible. 
1616 Death of Shakspere. 
1620 Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. 
1622 First English newspaper. 
1653 Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector. 
1667 Milton's Paradise Lost appeared. 
1678 Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress appeared. 
1683 Founding of Philadelphia. 
1685 Arrival of Franklin's father in New England. 
1689 Coronation of William and Mary. 
1706 Birth of Benjamin Franklin at Boston, Janu- 
ary 6. 

1711 Addison's contributions to the Spectator. 
1 7 13 End of Queen Anne's War. 
1 7 18 Franklin apprenticed to his brother. 
1 72 1 New England Courant started. 

1723 Franklin a runaway printer in Philadelphia. 

1724 Franklin's first trip to London. 
1726 Franklin's return to Philadelphia. 

1728 Franklin and Meredith's printing office opened. 

1729 Purchase of the Pennsylvania Gazette. 

1730 Marriage of Franklin and Miss Read. 
1732 Philadelphia Public Library started. 

Poor Richard's Almanac first published. 
1732-34 Pope's Essay on Man appeared. 

1736 Appointment of Franklin as clerk of the 

General Assembly. 

1737 Franklin appointed postmaster at Philadelphia. 

1738 Philadelphia Fire Company organized. 

[301] 



302 



A Chronological Table 



1742 Invention of the Franklin stove. 

1743 American Philosophical Society started. 
1744-48 King George's War. 

1749 Franklin's suggestion of the use of lightning 
rods. 

1752 Famous kite experiment, establishing identity 

of lightning and electricity. 

1753 Franklin's appointment as postmaster general 

for the colonies. 

1754 The Albany Plan of Union. 

1755 Braddock's defeat. 

Samuel Johnson's dictionary completed. 
1757 Franklin's errand to London for the Assembly 

of Pennsylvania. 
1762 Franklin's return to Philadelphia. 

1764 Franklin's reappointment as agent abroad for 

the province. 

1765 Passage of the Stamp Act. 

Watt's invention of the steam engine. 
1 77 1 Beginning of the Autobiography at Twyford in 

England. 
1773 Boston Tea Party. 

1775 Battle of Lexington. 

1776 Declaration of American Independence. 
Franklin's return to Philadelphia. 
Franklin's mission to the Court of Paris. 

1778 Burgoyne's surrender. 

Alliance with France and Spain. 
1 78 1 Cornwallis's surrender. 

1783 Treaty of peace at Paris. 

1784 Continuation of the Autobiography at Passy, 

near Paris. 

1785 Franklin's final return to Philadelphia. 

1787 Franklin a member of the Constitutional 
Convention. 

1789 A few additional pages of the Autobiography. 

1790 Death of Benjamin Franklin, April 17. 




SAYINGS OF 
POOR RICHARD 




Hunger never saw bad bread. 

Great talkers, little doers. 

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. 

A fat kitchen, a lean will. 

Men and melons are hard to know. 

Snowy winter, plentiful harvest. 

Better slip with foot than tongue. 

Don't think to hunt two hares with one dog. 

He that cannot obey cannot command. 

An egg to-day is better than a hen to-morrow. 

The family of fools is ancient. 

Necessity ne'er made a good bargain. 

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. 

Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead. 

A lie stands on one leg, truth on two. 

An old young man will be a young old man. 

Never praise your cider or your horse. 

Diligence is the mother of good luck. 

Now that I have a sheep and a cow, everybody bids 

me good-morrow. 
The rotten apple spoils his fellow. 
Love, cough, and a smoke can't well be hid. 
Well done is better than well said. 
The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise. 

[303] 



304 



Sayings of Poor Ricliard 



Industry need not wish. 

An empty bag cannot stand upright. 

No wood without bark. 

Lying rides upon debt's back. 

Drive thy business or it will drive thee. 

Light-heeled mothers make leaden-heeled daughters. 

When the well is dry we know the worth of water. 

A quarrelsome man has no good neighbors. 

Silks and satins put out the kitchen fire. 

Lost time is never found again. 

Little boats should keep near the shore. 

Three removes is as bad as a fire. 

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. 

He that would catch fish must venture his bait. 

There was never a good knife made of bad steel. 

Two dry sticks will burn a green one. 

To-day is yesterday's pupil. 




{The numbers refer to lines in the text.) 

i. Twyford.. At the age of sixty-five Dr. Franklin 
was in England as the agent of the Assembly of 
Pennsylvania. The heirs of William Penn owned a 
large amount of property in Pennsylvania, and claimed 
exemption from taxation under the terms of the char- 
ter granted William Penn. Franklin was sent over to 
England to prevail upon these heirs, either directly 
or through the king, to bear their fair share of taxes 
levied by colonial authority. The outcome of these 
negotiations is told by Franklin himself in the last 
paragraphs of this work that he was able to write. 
Franklin was also doing his best, as the most influential 
American in England, to avert war between England 
and her colonies. The "good Bishop" of St. Asaph, 
to whose country seat Franklin often went for rest 
and encouragement, was an intimate friend of Franklin 
and an advocate of justice for American interests. 

4. The journey I undertook. During a previous 
residence in England (see Chronological Table) as agent 
for the Assembly, Franklin, accompanied by his son, 
passed some time in Northamptonshire looking up 
the records of his family. 

81. An order of people. Editor Bigelow, to whom 
the readers of the Autobiography owe much, has en- 
riched his authentic edition with the following quota- 
tions: 

"Moreover, the same country is so filled and replenished with 
landed menne, that therein so small a thorpe cannot be found 

[303] 



306 



Notes 



wherein dwelleth not a knight, an esquire, or such a house- 
holder as is there commonly called a Franklin, enriched with 
great possessions and also other freeholders and many yeomen 
able for their livelihoodes to make a jury in form afore- 
mentioned." — Fortescue. 

"This worthy Franklin has a purse of silk, 
Fixed to his girdle, white as morning milk. 
Knight of the Shire, first Justice at the Assize, 
To help the poor, the doubtful to advise. 
In all employments, generous, just, he proved. 
Renowned for courtesy, by all beloved." — Chaucer. 

142. A specimen. Dr. Franklin was writing far 
from home and failed afterward to insert the poetry. 
Mr. Sparks quotes the following as having been 
written by Uncle Benjamin to little Ben in 17 13. 
Ben had evidently sent his uncle some youthful 
production in which signs of promise were detected. 

u 'T is time for me to throw aside my pen, 
When hanging sleeves read, write, and rhyme like men. 
This forward spring foretells a plenteous crop: 
For if the bud bear grain, what will the top! 
If plenty in the verdant blade appear, 
What may we not soon hope for in the ear! 
When flowers are beautiful before they 're blown, 
What rarities will afterward be shown! 
If trees good fruit un'noculated bear, 
You may be sure 't will afterward be rare. 
If fruits are sweet before they 're time to yellow, 
How luscious will they be when they are mellow! 
If first year's shoots such noble clusters send, 
What laden boughs, Engedi-like, may we expect in the end!" 

282. Soap-boiler. Franklin's spelling was "sope- 
boiler." Other of his spellings were "extream," 
"publick," "dy'd" [(for died), "compleat," "bisket," 
"wharff," "chuse," "waggons," "surprize." We are 
not to infer, however, that he was a poor speller. 

450. Pilgrim's Progress. At that time a compar- 
atively new book. It appeared about the time that 
Franklin's father left England. Franklin is given to 
short, vigorous English words instead of longer expres- 
sions derived from classical sources. For instance, in 



Notes 



307 



this paragraph we find " I was fond of reading," "was 
ever laid out in books," "such a thirst for knowledge," 
instead of disposed, expended, and desire. , It were 
worth while to compare Pilgrim's Progress with the 
Autobiography to discover the influence, if any, of 
Bunyan on Franklin. 

454. Chapmen's books. Chapman is a good Eng- 
lish word almost out of use. It is related to cheap, 
chap, and the German Kaufman. Chapman is a more 
expressive word than storekeeper or merchant. 

481. Serve as an apprentice. Few twelve-year-old 
boys would be willing nowadays to serve eight years 
for clothes and board to learn a trade. In the 
eighteenth century the bound apprentice was little 
better off than a servant. 

484. Made great proficiency. Franklin here uses 
the word proficiency in the old-fashioned sense of 
progress rather than of mastery. 

495. Ingenious tradesman. The older meaning 
of ingenious is intelligent rather than inventive. 

496. Pretty collection. A large collection. 

569. The Spectator. A London publication, some- 
what resembling a tract in form, issued each weekday 
for over two years. The bound volumes are really 
a series of short essays. Addison's most famous 
contribution to the Spectator was a number of short 
sketches of Sir Roger de Coverley. This passage is 
often quoted, and is full of valuable suggestions for the 
class in English composition. 

724. Pope says. To appreciate the freshness 
with which Pope's poetry appealed to Franklin we 
must hold in mind that Pope was a literary celebrity 
while Franklin was in London at the printer's trade, 
and that Pope's chief work, the Essay on Man, appeared 
soon after Franklin had issued the first number of 
Poor Richard's Almanac. The first quotation is from 
The Essay on Criticism, line 15. 

746. The second. In reality, this was the fourth 



3o8 



Notes 



American newspaper, and the third in New England. 

812 The Assembly. The colonial legislature of 
Massachusetts. 

1 146. Not discovering. This is an old use of dis- 
cover, meaning to reveal, to make known. 

13 12. Raree-show. Rarity show, a peep-show. 

13 16. Piece of eight. A Spanish dollar of eight 
reals. 

1636. Flesh-pots of Egypt. See Exodus xvi, 3. 
1746. Till Pope cured him. This is the Ralph to 
whom Pope refers in the Dunciad: 

"Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, 
And makes Night hideous — answer him, ye owls." 

Book iii, 165. 

"And see! the very Gazetteers give o'er, 
Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more." 

Book i, 215. 

1905. Fifteen pistoles. About sixty dollars. 

2092. Chapel. A former name for a printing office. 

2397. Purchased from the captain of a ship. In 
accordance with the custom of the times, able-bodied 
passengers, without money, sold their services for a 
term of years to the captain in exchange for passage. 
When a ship came in, speculators were on the outlook 
to buy up these servants. 

2876. The dispute. Governor Burnett, who was 
appointed from England, desired the Assembly to 
vote him a standing salary of £1000. The Assembly 
disclaimed all charge of parsimony, but stood by the 
idea of making the governor dependent upon popular 
favor for his salary. 

3132. Papers by post. The regular postal rates 
were too high to permit the sending of newspapers 
by mail. If taken by the carrier at all it would be 
on the sly, in return for a gratuity. 

3266. These letters. A number of letters from 
influential friends urging him to continue his auto- 
biography. We omit the letters. 



Notes 



309 



3727. Buying an ax of a smith. In colonial days 
the farmer's ax was made by a neighboring blacksmith. 
There were few manufactories of any kind in the 
colonies. 

4031. Poor Richard's Almanac. The original an- 
nouncement in the Pennsylvania Gazette ran as follows: 

"Just published, for 1733, An Almanack, containing the 
Lunations, Eclipses, Planets' Motions and Aspects, Weather, 
Sun and Moon's Rising and Setting, High Water, etc.; besides 
many pleasant and witty Verses, Jests, and Sayings; Author's 
Motive of Writing; Prediction of the Death of his Friend, 
Mr. Titan Leeds; Moon no Cukold; Bachelor's Folly; Parson's 
Wine and Baker's Pudding; Short Visits; Kings and Bears; 
New Fashions; Games for Kisses; Katherine's Love; Differ- 
ent Sentiments; Signs of a Tempest; Death of a Fisherman; 
Conjugal Debate; Men and Melons; The Prodigal; Breakfast 
in Bed; Oyster Lawsuit, etc. By Richard Saunders, Philomat. 
Printed and Sold by B. Franklin." 

6706. Eat. An old form equivalent to ate, pro- 
nounced et. 

3793. Heaving the log. The rate of a ship at sea 
is found by heaving out a canvas bucket called a log, 
while an officer stands by, watch in hand, to determine 
the length of line played out in a given time. If, 
for instance, the log fell away and drew out five hundred 
feet of line in a minute, how far would the shio sail 
in an hour? 




DR. FRANKLIN wrote his Autobiography, as is 
well understood, at such times of leisure as he 
could command during a period of some twenty 
years. He wrote at Twyford in England, at Passy in 
France, and at home in Philadelphia. In response 
to the earnest request of his stanch friend, the mayor 
of Passy, Franklin sent him a copy of his manuscript 
a short time before death. Franklin's grandson, to 
whom the task of editing his grandfather's writings 
had been intrusted, went to England with the manu- 
scripts in his trunk, and for some reason delayed their 
publication for twenty-seven years. There is evidence 
that the delay was secured by a bribe on the part of 
the British ministry, to whom Franklin's ideas were 
distasteful, or to whose political career the publica- 
tion of Franklin's writings might not be helpful. 

In the meantime the major portion of the Auto- 
biography, obtained from a source yet unknown, 
appeared in French from the press of a Paris publisher. 
This French edition was translated into English and 
published in London and later in America. These 
translations from the French were turned back into 
French again and republished in France. Add to 
the losses arising from translations the improvements 
made by editors, and we can readily see that our 
grandfathers were far from reading what Franklin 
wrote. 

The Autobiography was written by Dr. Franklin on 
both sides of 220 pages of foolscap with a wide half -page 

\3I0] 



Bibliographical Sketch 



3U 



margin which he used for additions and corrections. 
The copy made for the mayor of Passy by a mem- 
ber of Franklin's family was clear and legible, but 
failed to take note of all the marginal emendations. 
When, at last, the grandson made ready in 181 7 to 
publish, he appears to have exchanged manuscripts 
with the mayor's family, giving the annotated but 
perfectly legible original for the clear but less accurate 
copy, which he considered in better shape for the 
printer. Even then liberties were taken with Frank- 
lin's wording. In 1867 the Hon. John Bigelow, for 
some years a resident in France, was so fortunate as 
to secure the original from the heirs of the kind old 
mayor, who had long since perished on the guillotine 
during the French Revolution. The priceless manu- 
script had been half bound in red morocco and was in 
perfect condition. 

After journeying to England and thence to Paris, 
the original manuscript of the Autobiography thus 
returned to Philadelphia, and in 1874, eighty-six years 
after the venerable writer had given up writing in 
despair, the first authentic edition was published. 



THE Autobiography needs few notes or explana- 
tions. In addition to a school manual of American 
history and a manual of English literature, the 
following references are recommended for a place in 
the school library: 

Bigelow, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, 3 vols. 
Philadelphia. 

Green, A Short History of the English People. 
New York. 

Parton, Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. 
2 vols. Boston, 1864. 

McMaster, Franklin as a Man of Letters. Boston. 

Ford, The Many-Sided Franklin (especially valu- 
able). New York. 

Ford, Poor Richard's Almanac. New York. 

Fisher, The True Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia. 

Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution. 
2 vols. New York. 

Richardson, History of American Literature. 2 vols. 
New York. 

On the side of history, students may consult the 
well-known standard works of Bancroft, Hildreth, 
Fiske, McMaster, and others. 

Teachers desiring to make a study of Franklin will 
find suggestive material in Ford's Franklin Bibliography : 
A List of Books Written by or Relating to Benjamin 
Franklin. Brooklyn, 1889. 



1 312] 




SUGGESTIONS 
lb TEACHERS 




A FEW topics are offered as suggestions for class 
discussion and written exercises. The list may 
be extended to include debates and readings 
from authorities. 

1. Make a list of the turning points in Franklin's 
life. Which of these, in your judgment, had the great- 
est influence on his prospects? 

2. Find a dozen words used by Franklin in a sense 
different from that of to-day. Consider in the case of 
each word whether the former or the present meaning 
is the more appropriate. 

3. Franklin was a reader of Bunyan, of Addison, 
and of Samuel Johnson. Select a few sentences from 
the Autobiography like those used by Bunyan. Select 
others that remind you of Addison's Spectator. Find 
a few words, if not sentences, worthy of Johnson. 

4. Read Franklin's account of building the wharf 
by the millpond. A day or two afterward write the 
anecdote as nearly in Franklin's style as you can. 
Compare your writing with Franklin's. 

5. Note the list of virtues commended by Franklin. 
(See pp. 143 and 144.) Mention acts in Franklin's life 
illustrating the practice of these virtues. 

6. Had Franklin any interest in farming? Would 
he have made a successful farmer? Clergyman? 
Grocer? Lawyer? 

7. Was a certain southern gentleman justified in 
calling Franklin 41 that cunning Philadelphia printer"? 

8. Mention instances of Franklin's inventive ability. 

U13} 



Suggestions to Teachers 



9. Make a list of measures suggested or supported 
by Franklin for the betterment of Philadelphia. 

10. What do you consider Franklin's greatest 
service to the American people? 

11. Why should Paul Leicester Ford call his book 
"The Many-Sided Franklin"? How many sides can 
you find ? 

12. Can you think of any one in your neighborhood 
who in some respects resembles Franklin? 

13. What right had he to be called Dr. Franklin? 

14. Which of the present states of the Union was 
Franklin ever in? 

15. Make a list of modern poets unknown to 
Franklin; of novelists; of historians; of essayists. 

16. In all, how many years did Franklin spend in 
England? How many in France? Was he the less 
an American? 



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